On December 22, “Pitch Perfect 3: Last Call Pitches” was released in theaters, where it competed against “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” and “Jumanji,” during Christmas weekend. It pulled in just under 20 million opening weekend, which was considerably lower than the 70 million that “Pitch Perfect 2” made, but still made more money than the first movie made, and did especially poorly compared to the box office revenue of its competitor films.

  The film had fairly high expectations from fans, considering the past success of the series with its comedy, romance, drama, and musical numbers. Disappointingly, it is not just the box office bringing in poor results, but critics also gave the film a low score of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics did not seem to feel that the audience’s expectations were met in the latest addition to the franchise, and instead of delivering in its usual empowering and touching scenes, it seemed to lack both of those. Instead, the film was filled with bad jokes and cheesy scenes that overall felt very out of place.

  There were odd twists with the movie that simply did not seem to fit into the franchise’s usual storylines. The film had yet another music competition: a chance to get back together again to sing, which although a little repetitive, had not failed them before. That was until they added in kidnappings, explosions, and an overall ridiculous section of the film that, to many fans and critics, fell worlds away from what had been both wanted and expected in the movie.

  Although the film had some disappointments and weak storylines, there were also certain parts that still made it a fun film to watch. The same funny and entertaining girls from earlier shine through yet again in this film.

  In the third, and what looks to be the final film, we see the Bellas–an all-female a capella group–start to drift apart when they go their own ways after college. During a get-together with the girls, they start to realize how much they really missed singing together, especially after winning the World Championship in the last movie. Music wise, no one but Becca played by Anna Kendrick, one of the main characters who is working as a music producer, has done much.

   As it turns out, none of the other girls are doing too well with their jobs, so of course, when an opportunity arises for the girls to get back together again as the Bellas one last time for a European Tour for the Army, they snatch it up and get ready to get everyone set up for one last hurrah. Through this, they face their usual struggles among the Bellas, their new rivals, such as Evermoist, and leads to big decisions that tend to pop up in the thick of things, just to make everything a little bit more difficult.

  On top of everything else going on, they threw a new role into the chaos that had already commenced in the movie. Viewers get to meet Fat Amy’s father, played by John Lithgow, who as it turns out, has not been a part of his daughter’s life since she ran away from him when she was 18. Now that he is suddenly back, they have touching moments, and of course, continuous issues between the pair through the movie, all while she’s trying to focus on her competition. He also has a bit more of a role in the film than just a father figure, which adds to another complex and generally all over the place part of the story.

  While, overall, the music and characters were entertaining, most critics and fans found the movie to have strayed a little too far from the last two movies’ usual kind of plot and characteristics.