Your favorite aca-awesome acapella singing group is back and they’ve brought their A-game. The much anticipated sequel to last year’s blockbuster “Pitch Perfect” was finally released Friday, May 13, making its way to the top spot at the box office for opening weekend. The plot follows the career of now reigning champions and almost-graduates of the all-girl singing group, the Barden Bellas, three years after the first film took place. In their senior year, main character Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendricks) and co-leader Chloe Beale (Brittany Snow) are joined by other notable members from the original cast such as Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), the inaudible Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), confidently lesbian Cynthia-Rose (Ester Dean) and some of the men of the Treblemakers. The Bellas were joined by newcomer Emily Junk-Hardon played by Hailee Steinfeld as they are faced with challenges in the acapella world when they are publicly humiliated and suspended from their tour. Their only chances of keeping the Barden Bellas’ legacy alive is by competing head-on against the renowned German group, Das Sound Machine, at an international competition.

Despite the strikingly similar storyline to the original “Pitch Perfect,” in which the Bellas overcome the odds that are stacked up against them and the leaders of the group fight, but then come out stronger for it and rock a final performance, there were some notable differences in the sequel. For one, the love interests gravitate away from the beloved Becca and Jesse, and center on Fat Amy and Bumper. Also different was the performance of the first “original” that the Bellas did, which debuted singer Jesse J’s new song “Flashlight.”

The film fared rather well compared to the fate that most comedy sequels face. Although the plot seemed to follow closely to the original film’s, director Elizabeth Banks managed to pull the sequel off, grossing approximately $108.4 million worldwide. The comments made by the slightly off American co-hosts (Banks and John Michael Higgins) in the film were racier this time around, insulting race, cultures and gender roles; its outright wrongness making the audience laugh (albeit possibly uncomfortably). Also noteworthy were the hilarious Fat Amy, who had viewers in tears with her predicaments from flashing the President of the United States to singing her love across a lake, and the underrated one-liners by Flo Fuentes (Chrissie Fit), a Barden Bella that made light of her surprisingly dark past from Guatemala.

All in all, while not as highly reviewed as its predecessor, “Pitch Perfect 2” retained its hilarious comedy that will keep the audience roaring with laughter and its great soundtrack stuck in everyone’s heads. With ticket sales still going through the roof, the film is a must see with its feel-good theme and message of family and bonding. In the words of Fat Amy, they “crushed it.”