Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 31% based on 118 reviews and an
average rating of 4.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "
Pitch Perfect 3 strains to recapture the magic that helped the original spawn a franchise, but ends up sending this increasingly unnecessary trilogy out on a low note."
[29] On
Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
[30] Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, the same score earned by its predecessor.
[27]
Owen Gleiberman of
Variety praised the cast and said, "The new film doesn't add anything revolutionary to the
Pitch Perfect formula. It still sounds like we're in middle-period
Gleewritten by someone who finds Ryan Murphy too solemn. But as directed by Trish Sie, the movie is bubbly, it's fast, it's hella synthetic-clever, and it's an avid showcase for the personalities of its stars."
[31]
In a review for
The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck wrote "... what started out as a charmingly offbeat comic premise has inevitably degenerated into the sort of crass commercialism that probably would make the Bellas themselves turn up their noses."