As second rounds of comedies go, “Pitch Perfect 2” definitely is not perfect. Its script is more than a smidge pitchy. And there are at least two reasons to protest its treatment of Anna Kendrick’s Beca, the once outsider freshman who took the all-girl Barden Bellas to new competitive a capella heights in the sharp, sassy and sweetly humble original film that sprouted into an eminently re-watchable sleeper success mostly via DVD and cable in 2012.
First, not only is the diminutive dynamo subjected to bouts of abuse about her lack of height in the form of two towering Teutonic twits from a rival group known as Das Sound Machine, now that the Bellas are competing on an international level. (Although her weird girl-crush on the intimidating Valkyrie-like female half of this bullying pair at least gives Kendrick something amusing to chew on).