FILM REVIEW: Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect. 

I'm back! Sorry for my prolonged absence. I have been incredibly busy what with starting university etc. and when I got back home for the Xmas holidays, I went straight into a full time job! Busy. Busy. Busy. Anyways, I'm back now and will be bringing you lots of book and film reviews for things I've read and seen over the past few months. Hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas and Happy New Year!

I started watching this film with very high expectations. My friends and many critics had raved about how good this film was and I was excited to finally see the film from which the infamous 'cup song' had originated. Unfortunately, with every passing minute of this film, my expectations dropped lower and lower until the point where I was thoroughly bewildered by all the praise this film had received. This is, by no means, a bad film. It is; however, full of clichés with a poorly developed plot line that tries to pack too much in to too little time.

Pitch Perfect is the story of two a cappella groups from Barden University: The Barden Bellas and the Treblemakers. The treblemakers are seen as the best of the best, consistently winning the southeastern regional competition and while the Barden Bellas are good, they've faced a few hiccups along the way. New freshman Beca, played by Anna Kendrick, is a rebellious teenager who just wants to move to LA to pursue a career in music and DJing but she is forced to endure one year of college before her father will let her go. Seeing that Beca has not made any effort to make friends or join any societies within the first month at Barden University, her father says that she must join at least one society or the deal is off. Caught singing in the shower, Beca is recruited into the Barden Bellas but her rebellious nature grates on the Aubrey, the leader of the Bellas. At the same time, Beca's friend from the college radio, Jesse, becomes a Treblemaker, but the Bellas are strictly forbidden by Aubrey to have any sort of relationship with the Treblemakers lest they should lose their place as part of the group.

This film is labelled as a musical comedy, though, whilst it was very funny at times, I could never quite figure out whether I was laughing because the film was genuinely funny or because I was incredulous at how bad certain moments of this film are. Rebel Wilson is a brilliant actress who really stands out and basically single-handedly carries the 'comedy' of this entire film. She is hilariously funny and confident and was probably one of the most realistically portrayed characters in the film despite how ridiculous her character is. There's nothing particularly wrong with anyone else's acting, however, there isn't anything particularly noteworthy about the other actors and actresses. Anna Kendrick plays the standard teenage rebel with Daddy issues and whilst she does it fairly well, there just wasn't anything fresh or exciting about her character or Kendrick's performance. The same goes for pretty much every other character.


Insta-love. My (and everyone else's) pet hate seems prevalent in this film. Beca, turns very quickly from the alternative girl with far too many piercings to a sweet and confused college freshman who's fallen for a boy , Jesse the Trebletone, she is forbidden to date. Whilst the two interact whilst they volunteer at the college radio station together, there are very few scenes in which the pair are alone and in which you can see any sort of relationship forming. You know from the very beginning that something is going to happen between the two and suddenly the chemistry is there, but there is no build up whatsoever which is frustrating. Although this isn't a romance film, I would still expect the romance to be developed properly and fully alongside the singing drama.


Perhaps the film's one saving grace is that at the very least, the singing was genuinely really impressive. All the actor's and actresses in this film have amazing voices and there were some really cool covers and mashups throughout the film. A large majority of this film is spent singing and dancing which is good because it's entertaining but also bad because it meant that the plot and the going's on behind stage were not fully developed. With just a little bit of singing time cut, I'm sure that the rest of the drama in this film could've been properly executed which would have made film excellent instead of just 'good'.


All in all, I found Pitch Perfect to be an entertaining film that was downright hilarious at times. The problem is that it is an incredibly over-hyped film, thus prospective watchers have very high expectations, which in my case, were not fulfilled. If you're a fan of Glee then you'll probably love Pitch Perfect because the whole setup and the way the sets are performed pretty much mimics the way they are executed in Glee. If the drama that wasn't directly related to the singing parts of this film, i.e. romance, friend, family etc, had been fully developed, then this film would've been much more enjoyable. However, I can't help but feel that a better title for this film would've been - Glee: The Movie.


I feel like the majority of people reading this post won't agree with me about this film, so, if you've seen it - what were you thoughts? Comment and let me know below!