Pitch Perfect 3 wants to be a farewell. It wants to send the Bellas off with a bang, a final tour, a last call pitch. Instead it sends them off with a shrug. The film is a comedy about a cappella singers on a military base, but it spends more time on bad jokes than on the music that made the series work.
The setup is simple. The Bellas have graduated from Barden University and hate their jobs. Beca and Amy are roommates in New York. Emily, now a senior, invites the alumni under the impression they will be performing, only to reveal they are merely guests. Disappointed, they regroup at a bar and decide to join a USO tour headlined by DJ Khaled. The catch is that Stacie is eight months pregnant, so Emily takes her place on the road.
Trailer, via Pitch Perfect.
The Tour That Never Takes Off
The film opens with a promise: a group of women getting back together to sing one last time. It delivers on that promise, but it doesn’t deliver on the stakes. The Bellas land at a base in Rota, Spain, where they meet liaison soldiers Chicago and Zeke. They also meet the other three bands on the tour, which use instruments, leaving the a cappella group feeling out of place.
The problem is that the tour itself is mostly background. The film spends more time on side plots than on the performances that should anchor the story. The Bellas are supposed to be the stars of the show, but they spend most of the runtime reacting to other people’s antics.
Fat Amy’s Father Returns
Amy’s storyline is the strongest thread in the film. Her estranged father, Fergus, a ruthless international crime lord, finds her at their hotel. Amy sneaks off to a poker tournament, which turns out to be a ruse by Fergus to get back into her life. Amy agrees to let him in again after believing he has changed.
This is a tense setup. It could have anchored the film’s central conflict. Instead, it gets sidelined by the broader chaos of the tour. The film treats the father-daughter drama as a subplot, not the main story. That decision leaves the emotional core of the film underdeveloped.
DJ Khaled’s Suite
Beca develops a friendship with DJ Khaled’s music producer, Theo, who is impressed when she easily produces a mix of her singing on Khaled’s editing equipment. That scene is a highlight. It shows Beca’s skill and gives the film a moment of genuine competence.
Then the party crashes. Aubrey accidentally starts a fire, and the chaos begins. The film devotes far too much runtime to this mess, and it loses focus entirely. The fire, the poker tournament, the ruse — none of it earns its space.
The Songs That Don’t Land
The music is the heart of Pitch Perfect, and the third film tries to keep that tradition alive. But the songs here don’t have the same spark. The film leans on covers and original tracks, but the energy is missing. The Bellas sound less like a tight ensemble and more like a group of friends who happened to gather in the same room.
The film also introduces a new lead singer, Calamity of the band Evermoist. Ruby Rose plays the role, and she brings charisma, but the character is underwritten. She exists to be a foil for the Bellas, not a full person. The film doesn’t give her a reason to be on the tour beyond being a singer.
The Cast Carries What the Script Drops
The ensemble is the film’s greatest strength. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Anna Camp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, Alexis Knapp, Kelley Jakle, and Shelley Regner all return. They bring the same chemistry that defined the first two films. Even John Lithgow, playing Amy’s father, and DJ Khaled himself add to the fun.
But the script doesn’t give them much to work with. The jokes are predictable. The callbacks to past films are fine, but they don’t elevate the material. The film is a comedy, and it fails to be funny in a way that feels fresh.
The Numbers Behind the Screen
The film was shot in Atlanta, Georgia, with principal photography beginning in January 2017 and ending that April. It was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on December 22, 2017. The film grossed $185 million worldwide against a $45 million budget, making it the second-highest-grossing musical comedy of all time, behind Pitch Perfect 2.
Those numbers are impressive. But the film’s reputation has not aged well. Critics deemed it inferior to its predecessors, and that judgment holds up. The film is competent, but it is not special. It is a cash grab, a third installment that repeats the formula without adding anything new.
A Farewell That Misses Its Mark
Pitch Perfect 3 is a film about saying goodbye. It should have been a celebration of a group of women who found each other through music. Instead it becomes a collection of jokes, a fire, a father, and a tour that never quite takes off.
The film is not a disaster. It is a disappointment. It is a film that knows what it is doing, but it doesn’t commit to doing it well. The cast deserves better. The music deserves better. The audience deserves better.
Here is what the film gets right:
- The chemistry between the returning cast members
- The friendship between Beca and Theo
- The tension between Amy and her father
And here is what it gets wrong:
- The pacing, which drags in the middle
- The focus on side plots over the main story
- The lack of musical energy in the performances
Pitch Perfect 3 is a mixed bag. It has moments of genuine warmth and humor, but those moments are scattered across a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be. It is a sequel that repeats the past without moving forward.
The film ends with the Bellas performing one last time. It is a fitting finale, but it is a hollow one. The movie has spent its runtime building toward a moment that should feel triumphant, and instead it feels like a shrug.
Pitch Perfect 3 is a film that should have been better. It has the pieces of a great comedy, but it never puts them together. The result is a film that is pleasant to watch, but forgettable afterward.
The final score is 4 of 10.
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