So I had no intention of watching this film, ever. I got roped in. I just ended up at the cinema with 60 or so squealing girls who nervously giggled at the sex jokes during the trailers at the beginning of the film. I submitted.
So I haven’t seen the first one but it was very easy to gather what was going on. A group of girls in a college acapella group embarrass themselves in front of the whole world which puts them in danger of being banned from singing again unless they win against the ever evil, stylish and devilishly handsome Germany in a world competition of singing.
It’s like Glee without the instruments and the addition of really really flat characters. (Thats a very loaded statement considering that Glee is a television show that allows time for characters to develop, but seriously, the only character development in Pitch Perfect is a girl learning that if she has nothing to say, then use what someone else has to say and take credit for it).
I am glad to find out that this film is directed by a woman and written by a woman and the protagonists are women, but that doesn’t make the casual racism and ridiculous stereotyping excusable in my books.
So the group of girls have a token minority in their singing team, yay for diversity, but they are only there for these horrible punchlines. The hispanic girl only says lines relating to being an illegal immigrant. The asian girl whispers and does weird ninja things with no explanation. The black girl does the raps and sings the hard notes in the songs but then is never seen again (I did enjoy how she asked ‘what is this white shit?’ or some such line when they were singing some lame white girl song in a tent).
That male announcer dude was the worst. ‘Nobody likes the Koreans. But they do a great barbeque.’ From now on, whenever I make a racial slur, it won’t count if I compliment them on their cuisine.
So lets be real, all of this stuff isn’t a big deal when dealing with Hollywood cinema, but shouldn’t it be? Why are these films marketed to young women full of horrible jokes? Why must it be so cringe-worthy? Is subtlety not cool? Are intelligent jokes that don’t rely on stereotypes not cool?
My favourite part of the film is when ‘Fat Amy’ tells Bumper that she doesn’t want to be tied down and she needs to be free and do what she pleases. That was a great moment. That guy graduated ages ago and is still hanging around the college. What is he doing, man? She can do a trillion times better… But she goes back to him. Not cool. Not cool at all. Why does everyone need to be paired up? I hate how they tamed the wild girl. Also was he voiced by Jack Black? He literally sounds exactly like Jack Black.
Anyway, this was a major hate rant. Please never force me to watch films like this ever again. I’m gonna watch Mad Max this coming weekend to cleanse myself.
