Pitch Perfect 2

Sometimes you see a film so wrongheaded that the only reaction you can muster up is incredulousness. You stay for the credits, searching for answers: "Who wrote this? Who directed it? Who allowed this to happen?" The screen becomes a crime scene. When a movie like "Pitch Perfect 2" happens, somebody needs to be held accountable.

The film is written by Kay Cannon and directed by Elizabeth Banks. The first thing you notice is that they haven't bothered to come up with a story for their sequel. Instead there are five or six subplots, all of them slight enough to be sitcom-worthy, that sputter about. Cannon and Banks have crafted the film -- which follows the Barden University Bellas, an a cappella collective, through another season -- with the expertise of a freshman at a frat party.

Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) starts the film off by exposing herself mid-performance, which is played for a laugh because she's fat and naked and this is the type of movie that finds such things funny. The incident disillusions Beca (Anna Kendrick), who starts sneaking away to an internship at a record label in lieu of practicing with the squad.

She's eventually joined by Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), a new pledge to the group, who's working through her own requisite subplot regarding her songwriting ability. In the midst of all this, a few boyfriends walk through the margins while other Bellas pop their heads into the frame for a joke whenever they can. All this while the team is on a tour, too, trying to clear their name after the aforementioned "muffgate." The first "Pitch" was an outside-explores-the-subculture movie, in the tradition of "Mean Girls" and "Bring it On." But this one more closely mirrors the slapdash structuring of "Spice World."

So there's no story. That's fine. Half the fun of follow-up movies is in hanging out with characters you already know and like. But the characters here have been re-conceptualized; they've been simplified; they've been reduced. Everyone who isn't Beca has been boiled down into an appearence-based stereotype. Amy is sloppy. Flo (Chrissie Fit), who's Latina, makes innumerable jokes about kidnapping. Cristina, who is black and gay, is mean and anti-social. The bad guys are a group of Germans who (surprise!) get off on being stern.

You almost start to expect that racial slurs will start spilling out. Watching the movie is like watching a thinly-veiled racist do stand-up -- you just wince. The dialogue doubles down on the ugliness of the characterizations. Banks plays a commentator at a world competition. When she makes references to a team from the Philippines (to select one instance of many), you best believe that a joke about "ladyboys" is sure to follow.

We could dub this "problematic" and be done with it. But the problems here go far beyond that: The visual style fluctuates unendingly (it's a jumble of cliches, like fast-motion time-lapses and slow-motion group hugs) and the film is filled with unintentional continuity errors. Note the stage during the final performance: A group of older characters, presumably featured in deleted scenes, appear and then disappear from the stage without explanation, and in a matter of seconds. If the stereotypes don't offend you, then the unabashed artlessness probably will.