Pitch Perfect 3 Review

I have to admit I’m a huge Pitch Perfect fan. I have been since the first movie, which I totally fell in love with, and it continued onto the second movie, which was OK (I say OK even though I’ve watched it probably the same amount of times as the first one), so I was excited for the third and final chapter of this movie series. I was supposed to see it in the movie theater, but was sick for most of the month with a really bad case of tonsillitis. So I waited for it on DVD. I heard about the bad reviews and put off getting this movie for a while. I finally made the purchase though and figured I would give it a shot.

Pitch Perfect 3 centers around the main characters of the Barden Bella’s. Beca, played by Anna Kendrick, is a failed music producer who has just lost her job. Fat Amy, played by Rebel Wilson, is trying to get her own show on the road with Fat Amy Whine House. Chloe, played by Brittany Snow, is trying to get into vet school. Aubrey, played by Anna Camp, is still working the same job that she worked in Pitch Perfect 2. The whole point though is that all of these girls are basically miserable. They’ve finally left college and are trying to make it in the real world, but it’s not happening. When they get the chance to reunite as Bella’s one last time for a USO tour, they jump at the chance and go globe trotting as the USO world tour turns out to be a competition and the winner will become the opening act for DJ Khaled. Will the Bella’s succeed for one final time? Or will it finally be time for them to hang up their yellow scarves? All that will be revealed and more in the final Pitch Perfect movie.

Being the Pitch Perfect fan that I am, I would be lying if I said that this movie was the perfect ending to a movie that took what Glee had and turned it into something better. This movie just plain out sucked. It was the worst Pitch Perfect movie and a horrible way to put an end to all of these girl’s story. The main plot was iffy at best and the sub-plot of Fat Amy’s dad being some crime lord was just thrown in there for a reason that I’ll get to in a minute. I really tried to like this movie, I did, but I just couldn’t. There were so many things wrong with it, so many missed points, so many missed opportunities, that it just made this movie a complete yawn fest. I will say that the whole USO tour thing was clever and would have worked, if they devoted more time to that instead of making it a montage and instead centering on the whole Fat Amy and her dad. Don’t get me wrong, Fat Amy is one of my favorite characters, but the sub-plot that was added to this movie just made this move sink down even lower in the ratings. There were those funny parts, most of them because of Rebel Wilson, but other than that I felt like I just stared at the screen for an hour and a half and watched a complete and utter train wreck. Unlike the movies before, there was nothing catchy, nothing to actually remember, nothing to actually reference in the real world and have people who don’t know the movie look at you like “huh?” and have people who do know the movie quote something back to you. (Yes, I have to put in here that I’m a total nerd when it comes to this movie and will refer to things as acca-awesome which makes people look at me funny at work. They obviously don’t get the Pitch Perfect references.) Anyway, this movie could have been so much better, but it just wasn’t.

The Queer Baiting is Real – So it’s been obvious since the first movie that there was always something going on between Becca and Chloe. Sure people will say it was because of the shower scene, but it was something so much more. Even if the shower scene was removed from the first movie, which would be a damn shame, it was obvious to see that there was something going on between Becca and Chloe. Maybe the first movie didn’t intentionally do this, and that’s understandable. It happens a lot where people will ship a certain couple, who aren’t actually a couple, just based on the obvious chemistry on screen. An example that comes to mind is Xena. I could talk about Xena for hours, but moving on, the second movie played upon this and played upon the LGBT audience that began to ship Becca and Chloe. Obviously I was one of them. I so wanted this to happen and got tired of the whole Becca and Jessie thing. When it was put to an end in Pitch Perfect 3 it made me wonder a bit. Would Universal make Becca and Chloe a thing? With this last movie being a basic fan service, you would think so. Then it was leaked that a kiss between Becca and Chloe was filmed and it was how the movie would end. Then there was the promo that Universal put out themselves, before getting rid of it, with Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow going in for an embrace but stopping and urging the audience to come and see if they actually got together in the final movie. Fast forward to the movie being released and everything basically being erased. SPOILER ALERT Chloe ends up with some random guy that she met at the beginning of the movie. Becca ends up alone because she’s not having any of that shit. Throughout this movie it was heavily hinted that these two characters would end up together, and I’m not just talking about the touching scene, it was other obvious things that were thrown into the viewers face only to have nothing pan out in the end. This is obvious queer baiting on behalf of Universal and it’s wrong. It’s wrong in so many ways especially for a movie studio that basically produces porn with Fifty Shades of Grey and the sequels, which you can buy unrated versions of, but God forbid there were two women kissing on screen! It’s not it like was hinted at for three movies! Seriously Universal? Then to not even release the kiss as a deleted scene on the DVD was just a nail on the coffin. Being part of the LGBT community this just really gets to me, I would have been fine if the scene wasn’t filmed and confirmed or if the promo that was pulled hadn’t been released at all, but all of this happened and for Universal to purposely not put this into the movie was obvious queer baiting and it’s just wrong. So shame on you Universal.

As always, the one and only shining part of this movie was the cast. The cast works perfectly together and I really love it when a movie comes together and brings together a cast that just works like this one did and always will. For all three movies, this cast of actress’s have just knocked it out of the ball park and through the ridiculousness of it all made these movies what they are. The first one being iconic, the second one being some what memorable, and the third one being forgettable. The only thing that’s memorable about this movie is the devotion of these actress’s to try and put the best movie they could possibly put out there and for that they get a kudos.

Overall I give this movie a 1 out of 5.

So what a way for this movie to go out. This was the worst addition to the Pitch Perfect franchise with the horrible plot, the even more horrible sub-plot and the more than obvious queer-baiting that went on during the course of not only this film but the other films as well. While this movie doesn’t ruin the whole franchise as a whole, it definitely ends it on a sour note and makes me want to hide this movie from my collection. This is definitely not being played during the Pitch Perfect binge watching nights. If you’re a Pitch Perfect fan I would say to skip this movie and just end it at 2 because it’s not worth it to sit through a horrible plot and sub-plot. If you’re a Becca and Chloe shipper, like myself, I would say to never watch this movie because it will reel you in, hook, line, and sinker, only to not deliver in the end and put a nail in the coffin of the whole Becca and Chloe shipping.