High School Musical 3: Senior Year

It's funny to think that this time two years ago, I had no idea what HSM was, but now it's everywhere - it's marketed to death with pretty much every possible item you could want bearing the toothy grins of the cast jumping in the air. Main reason I watched the first and second on the telly over Christmas and Easter respectively? Go and ask my nine soon-to-be ten family friend's daughter, who always asks if I've seen it. Yep, you guessed it, she's a big fan.

So, since the first was such a success thanks to those under 12(who probably in secret, rule the world), Disney milk the cash cow for the last few drops and bring out another one.

Possibly, the only one in the cast that can act with a shred of conviction, given the superficiality of the material is Efron. And no, I don't harbour a fancying towards him, it just seems the other cast members are either too OTT and annoying(Sharpay, Tiara the new London schoolgirl transfer, Jimmy etc) or come across as unconvincingly with their 'cute' personals (Hudgens especially).

And I can't nor do I even imagine I can speak for everyone, but there were too many 'pass me the bucket, I'm going to throw up' romantic moments with Troy and Gabriella that were so saccharine they could cause diabetes(and they get most of the songs). The first one had less of these moments and was better for it(although I'm not claiming any one of these films is very good, as I don't think they are).

The cinematography has such bright, bold colours with the trademark red and white that near the end I was hoping maybe the sunny attitude the clothing has would be turned down a notch. The Barbie pink wardrobe adorned by Sharpay may suit the character, but still looks ridiculous - I hope no ones getting ideas to copy this look in their hoards ....

Now or Never is my fave song (can't get it out of my head, just like how We're All in This Together(which gets a slower arrangement for the colourful graduation in this film) and What Time is It? were my faves of the first and second films respectively. As mentioned before, I'm not keen on the ballads shared by Troy and Gabriella. Another song I liked was the I Want it All and the dream stage scenes with the song, I laughed at the boyband pop-video wannabe that was Boys Are Back. Anytime a song begins to play and the cast start to sing, I can help but laugh unintentionally - it's obviously, all very cheesy.

Overall: It's not everyday you see a group of young kids under seven all dancing around near the big screen itself near the front in the cinema when the film ends or slapping their hands on their thighs in time with the music for one of the last songs, High School Musical. I even saw some jumping around, pretending to do the moves show in some of the musical numbers!

It's squeaky clean and about as deep as a puddle, yet who am I to cast the first stone for something harmless children enjoy, as I had my moments aged 8-10 when I loved something equally as cheesy - Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers anyone? The plot hardly has a chance to get into depth, even if it wanted to though with more than ten songs to squeeze in (and some references to other musicals with the big stage set pieces), so when it does start with the drama it all seems contrived and I wanted a catchy song to bop my head to.

Yes, it's a guilty pleasure of mine, and yes, the opening is cringe-worthy with a close-up of a sweaty Efron in grimace playing basketball as are some other scenes, but in terms of feel good throwaway entertainment it works alright. Don't go in expecting hilarity as it only has a handful of mildly amusing and one laugh-out-loud funny moments with Jimmy near the end(not including my unintentional giggles). Oh and stay behind a few minutes for some few bloopers.

Nothing brilliant and this definitely doesn't top Grease which I think still portrays high school a bit more realistically (and with better songs to me), but I don't strongly dislike this nor would you catch any of the merchandise or even the DVDs in my room, never mind my home. It's a cheesy craze that's having it's time, so let the kids enjoy it for it's inoffensive happy persona. And ... Go wildcats! But please, let it end with the hats being thrown in the air - no more sequels Disney! Aren't the houses of your execs big enough?!

Never let it be said at the Magic Kingdom that they miss an opportunity to make that extra buck. For the final version of High School Musical, the Disney crowd released it to the theater instead of television. The decision was a no-brainer, the various road company High School Musical performers have been doing great business wherever they appeared including my home city. And certainly the box office for High School Musical 3 has justified this decision.

But this is the end for this particular class, the six stars are already way too old for High School Musical 3, we've got to graduate them. In the cast are the new people getting ready to take over for Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Ashley Tisdale, and Lucas Grabeel.

They are going out with style however and the plot such as it is has the cool kids from East High competing for a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music. Two representatives from Julliard will be at the senior show to award a scholarship and you already know that scheming Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) is going to do whatever it takes to get that scholarship.

In fact Tisdale's quest for the scholarship sets her up with an All About Eve twist in this plot. Jemma McKenzie-Brown plays a new girl from London who attachs herself to Tisdale. Now if any of the teen crowd that likes the High School Musical reads this review and decides to check out All About Eve, I will have done my job.

In fact the eventual decision of the judges is quite a good one and to appreciate it you would have had to see all three films.

High School Musical 3 is an appealing film as the others are, but it creates an incredible fantasy world which I can tell you didn't exist when I went to high school lo these many years ago. And supposedly we're far more sophisticated now and like realism in our cinema.

But those who've followed the series, see the original Wildcats one more time.

The low score on IMDb is representative of the majority opinion of those that are not really within the target audience of this film, however it is also the opinion of those who have never watched any of the High School Musical films for themselves. Rather than accepting that the film is not for them they also feel the need to deride it as worthless when really they mean that nothing about it holds any value for them. This is not the same as the HSM films being brilliant though – just I think that they come in for some overly harsh criticism by those that seem surprised that they do exactly what they propose to do. In a way it is like complaining that Star Wars is an awful film because it is a sci-fi.

OK, there is plenty wrong with HSM3. The plot is obvious but yet full of sanitised relationships and situations, cloying moral messages and forced sentiment and certainly if you are watching it as a film then yes there is plenty that is clunky. However it is probably not fair to pick holes in all of the obvious stuff while ignoring that it does actually do a good job as a musical. Have you been to a musical? It tends to bring cheesy overacting, big smiles, easy sentiment, big musical numbers and not a lot of room for gritty reality of teenage life and the messy business of teenage relationships – that HSM3 has all these faults is not really something that I'm going to kick it about. It is a bit overlong though and, at almost two hours it does have sections that appear to have little forward motion and perhaps lack pace or a sense of fun that it does when it is in good form. It could and should have lost at least 20 minutes in there somewhere and would have been better for it – although I know that Disney see it as a flagship product recently so want to do more with it. It must also be said that several of the musical numbers are not as fun as they should have been. Some don't inspire in terms of choreography and several of the songs come over as rather bland and samey.

The cast do well, although I understand why some viewers do not like the performances. Efron may not have a great range to expand out of this but he is a great presence in the film – he does singing and dancing really well and has a light touch that makes him easy to like. Likewise Hudgens, for all her photographic "scandals" delivers a wonderfully light turn that is nothing but sweetness. OK neither of them come over as real people but they are sweet and enjoyable couple at the heart of the film. As before Tisdale is fun and bitchy without being unlikeable and she works well with Grabeel. Bleu has less to do than before and I didn't think he was used that well – likewise Coleman.

Overall HSM3 is far from a great film. It is clunky and obvious, overlong, cheesy and is not the sort of thing that will win over viewers who do not like cheesy musicals – but it is a bit harsh to blame that on the film when it is pretty clear from the start that this is what it is setting out to be. It should not be given total forgiveness for its flaws and of course the casual viewer may be left a bit cold by aspects of it but if you are happy to meet it on its terms then it is a reasonably good (if sanitised and soullessly packaged) product.

My only exposure to High School Musical was from a chalet gathering last Christmas where a friend who was a fan brought his DVD and shared with us what's there to like from this highly popular franchise. The DVD has countless of versions released to milk its fan base, that I've really lost count just how many variations (Encore? Extended Dance?) there are out there in the market. Even then I didn't really watch High School Musical 2 completely, only zooming into the catchy song and dance numbers, and as for the first movie, I was only familiar with one or two songs that became like anthems for working together?

Anyway I'm not a fan, and the reason why I would have watched this is because Disney decided it was good enough for the big screen. Either that, or they actually did their sums and realize that the huge fanbase would turn up in droves to support it in the cinemas. And I guess they were right, looking at how it opened at #1 at the US Box Office. Is it any good then? For the uninitiated like me, the story's nothing spectacular, as it deals with growing pains of students and decisions that come with the end of high school, having choices presented on where you would want to go next for further studies. This would naturally mean a split amongst established friends as you'll be geographically separated, and temporarily close a chapter in your life.

Central to the story would be the possible insecurities and impending (long term?) split between lovebirds Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vannessa Hudgens) due to the latter's brainier character being accepted by Stanford. In fact just watching this movie alone, I thought Gabriella was the psychologically tougher of the two, with Troy being your typical indecisive jock who's a bit wishy-washy about his own development path ahead. The other subplot would be the usual resident evil Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) and her antics in wanting the limelight all for herself, this time though with her personal assistant thrown into the mix, and having the audience judge who's the biggest bitch out there.

But of course this is Disney, so don't expect too deep a theme to be dwelled upon. It's still fairly light stuff that is meant for enjoyment by kids, and supposedly with wholesome values thrown in too that would meet parental approval. It's fairy tale stuff that would seem like a cop out with its perfectly ideal ending, though some may find such saccharine positivity a refreshing change for once.

The song and dance numbers are wonderfully choreographed, though one can cringe at some of the lyrics for the slower numbers. A pity of course that we don't get to see the centerpiece of the show within the show, and only bits and pieces of the graduation play that the characters designed as something to commemorate their time at East High by. But of course I suspect that this is probably reserved in advance for the DVD release, where you can sit through the entire thing in one sitting.

OK, I work at a movie theater and the main thing we've been waiting for is High School Musical 3: Senior Year, we knew it was going to be big, so a few co-workers and I got together for the matinée before all the kids rushed in, it was still packed surprisingly. But I've seen both previous films because my little cousin is just in love with all that pre-teen hoop-la, it's all good, every generation has something so lovey-dovey-cutesee-wootsee type of thing. But one of the things that made this film enjoyable was to see all the kids who were just participating with this film, I mean, I felt like I was in a concert, the kids were clapping with the songs, screaming for their idols, and just having fun, it was cool to see their reactions, to remember a more innocent time of being in love that much with something. But I felt like this was just a cute movie that is getting too much criticism just because it is High School Musical, give it a break and take it for what it is.

The gang is back for their senior year and everything is just perfect, they came up with a great idea for a musical to represent all that they're going through in this exciting year. But there is also a lot of pressure: Zack is facing a tough decision of which college to go to while Gabriella is planning on going to Yale University so far away from him, Sharpay and her brother, Ryan, are competing for a scholarship to Juliard, and Chad and Taylor are learning what to do with the rest of their lives while loosing their best friends to different schools.

Granted High School Musical is never Oscar material, in fact, it's downright like having a soda after school with the hot quarterback or sexy cheerleader, but like I said, it's for the kids. Seeing their reactions to this reminded me and my co-workers of a more innocent time, when I had the same excitement to see Spice World when I was 12 years old. We all had these silly things we loved at a young age and for some reason we become more cynical as we get older criticizing everything that the new generation has, so I'm cutting this movie some slack. It had fun songs, cute characters, silly situations, but great dance numbers and is just over all a nice film for the family. I do recommend it just for the fun of being with the fans and just having a good time, no matter how cheesy it is.

6/10