I am pretty sure I liked this more than the 2nd and I didn’t mind the 2nd one. But Prisma, you may bemoan, I’ve always thought of you as a connoisseur of culture and now I’m going to hear a glowing review of this idol of empty capitalism? Whatever, calm down, it’s not good enough to get all artsy hoity-toity over.

I frequently make fun of myself for laughs so I appreciate it when a movie does the same for my benefit. Where are some of the actors from the other movies? Meh, somewhere over there. Are we really going to jam as many songs into a music battle so that we introduce the competition in a way that no a cappella group I’ve ever seen/been in has ever come close to being able to spontaneously do? Yeah, but it’s with instruments this time so it completely different. But hey, if we’re rolling out clichés and call backs for the sake of a completely acceptable followup movie then at least it was for the troops this time.

Music-wise this movie was not as good as the original but superior to #2 because…less Flashlight. I think they gave up on trying to sell the most annoying character I’ve seen in a long time. She’s there but we aren’t trying to pretend that her blatant disregard for social norms and self-congratulating lyricist thing are fun and cute as much so YAY! There was also fewer songs of the year in the movie which I appreciate because they chose things that sound good and feel right and not My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark which no a cappella group has ever done well enough.

I’m not going to go into detail on the acting because Anna is a treasure and everyone did good enough at fairly cookie cutter roles that the movie worked and nobody stood out as a sore thumb among a field of vocal lilies.

The story was, in many ways, not bad for what it was supposed to be, I mean, there weren’t any shocking, award winning moments but it had a beginning, middle, and end. We had character plots explored for multiple of the girls if not character growth. The writers really knew where their strengths were. Have Anna belt. Have Fat Amy get mixed up in something amazingly over-the-top. Give creepy girl some fun things to say. Give vomiting blonde things to get up tight about. Give us at least one wholesome, attractive guy. And hey, ‘Merica!

Which made me forgive them for the absolute lack of effort in something for them to fight for/against (I would say villains but #daddyissues covers that enough I guess) giving the competition no tension or drama. I’m trying to remember what they were even competing for/against. I think it was ants or musical instruments or the lack of shirtless soldier scenes or something.

Verdict: If you invested your time in 1 and 2 and aren’t immediately turned off of 3 then just see it. You don’t need to read a review to make up your mind. It’s 100% what it’s billed to be, it won’t lie to you, it won’t lead you on, it won’t judge you. If you haven’t seen 1 and 2 then see those first and then go to the beginning of this paragraph.