High School Musical 2

I've said it before and I'll say it again, High School Musical 2 is the greatest cinematic achievement of all time. If Beethoven wasn't deaf nor dead he would cry in awe of the beauty of its classic hits such as: Bet On It, Gotta Go My Own Way, Fabulous and more, knowing he would never be able to compare. Zac Efron changed the film industry with his performance in this film, inspiring millions world wide. To say that High School Musical 2 is not the greatest achievement of humanity would be heresy and would result in the Pope breaking down your door and presenting you with a 56 hour powerpoint presentation on the epic highs and lows of High School Musical 2. Sharpay and Ryan Evans are perhaps the most culturally important characters to ever be portrayed, possessing such a high level of icon behaviour that if aliens were to land in my backyard and ask me to take them to my leaders I'd simply show them High School Musical 2. In conclusion no words can ever sum up the sheer genius of this film but if you haven't already seen it (like a fool) then watching it should be next up on your agenda.

This movie did not live up to the hype. The plot was alright but lacked in the heart and the message of the first movie. The first movie was great because it had a message of "be an individual no matter what". This movie didn't have any message.

Some of the songs were wonderful, but some were just awful. It was obvious that there was synthesizing on a lot of the songs, especially "Bet on It". The other issue is that while Zac Efron did his own singing in this movie, his voice did not pair well with Vanessa Hudgens like Drew Seeley's in the first movie.

Ashley Tisdale was much more enjoyable in this movie though, she was cattier and meaner and it was hilarious. Vanessa's acting went totally down hill from the last movie and was lacking believability. Lucas rocked this movie though. He should have had a much much bigger role! And I'm sorry, but I was far far too reminded of The Lion King when I heard "Everyday". Elton John, anyone? I'd prefer the sound mixing of the first movie with these new songs, they are good songs, but the over-mixing takes it away for me.

This is a follow-up to the very successful Disney Original Movie "High School Musical" that was first shown a couple of years back. My kids loved the first one so much that they have practically memorized all the songs. Their favorites are "Start of Something New", "Bop to the Top", "Breaking Free" and "We're All in This Together". OK, OK, I liked it too.

Now this sequel has a different setting. It was not even set in the high school per se anymore, but in a posh New Mexico resort owned by Sharpay and Ryan Evans. Sharpay gets her claws out again to grab Troy Bolton away from his girl Gabriella Montez. She fixes it so that Troy will work a summer job at her resort, but to her surprise, Troy brings the whole Wildcats gang in with him, including Gabriella! There are more serious themes in this film. There are several serious confrontation scenes. There were serious choices that needed to be made by lead character Troy, more serious than whether he should sing at his high school musical or not. This time decisions involved loyalties, priorities, planning for the future while staying grounded now. Very difficult choices indeed for a teenager in high school to face. But of course, as this is a Disney Original Movie Musical, so we do expect a happily-ever-after.

The songs in the first HSM seem catchier for me, but of course, I'm biased since I have heard them over and over, and enjoyed my kids singing them over and over. But the songs here have a charm of their own. Let's see if they will catch on, and if my kids will want to watch this over and over when the video comes out.

The songs parallel those in the first movie.

"I Don't Dance" is sung by Ryan and Chad while dancing and playing baseball, in the style of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video. I see it as the equivalent of "Getcha Head in the Game".

"You are the Music in Me" echoes "What I've Been Looking For," sung slowly at the piano with Kelsi by Troy and Gabriella. Although the alternate fast Sharpay version is sung this time with Troy, not Ryan.

"Gotta Go My Own Way" is the sad love song by Gabriella, much like "When There Was Me and You" in the first movie. Troy gets to sing a little with Gabriella in the new song though.

"Everyday" sung during the actual Talent Show at the end is the equivalent of "Breaking Free" sung at the Musical in the HSM1.

"All For One" is the new "We're All In This Together", the party song sung at the end by the whole cast.

Zac Efron sung all of Troy Bolton's songs in this second movie, unlike in HSM1 where Andrew Seeley get credited for the Troy songs (and appears in the HSM Concert in lieu of Zac!) Zac even has a solo highlight "Bet On It", where he dances ala Michael Jackson meets the Jets (of West Side Story) on the golf course.

Overall, HSM2 succeeded because the characters were all very familiar and well loved. Who could argue with rating of 17.6 million viewers on its premiere night, making it the highest Disney Channel Original Movie in history? Its soundtrack album is the second best selling album of 2007. None of the new songs though made so much of an impact on the singles chart like "Breaking Free" did the last time.

Despite the efforts obviously spent on this above-average sequel, I personally do not think it will match the enduring success of the first HSM, but I guess only time can tell how much legs this sequel has.

"High School Musical" was a fun classic film. It's such a terrible shame that Disney is milking the franchise for all it's worth because it will only hurt the franchise more in the end.

I don't blame Disney for doing a sequel. The story and character development though is a bit stale and cliché, like being in dull standard DCOM territory. I've been listening to the soundtrack to this film nonstop before I finally saw the movie and it is the best soundtrack ever. However the actual performance of these songs in the film is less to be desired.

"What Time Is It?" and "Work This Out" were the worst musical sequences in matters of dance and direction. They're good songs on the soundtrack but on screen I was like...ugh...Troy's dancing! I think you can do more visually with these musical numbers then see Troy do bad break dancing in one spot for a whole 3 minutes! "What Time Is It?" was just ridiculous and over the top given that this is coming fresh off of HSM which had more genuine and more realistic musical numbers. Here it is just like "the music is playing everyone start doing a ridiculous dance infront of the camera!" As I said about story and characters, they're not so great as the original but you just need to have fun with it as even more unrealistic as this film is compared to the film.

I will say this: Sharpay was evil and became more of a stereotypical snobby blonde character in this film as she attempts to steal Troy from Gabriella, but goddamit SHARPAY IS AWESOME IN THIS MOVIE!!! All the other characters in the film were a bit more "smug" in this film (much to my annoyance) but Sharpay was just fun and hilarious in her attempts to steal Troy. And it was good to see more development with Ryan's character.

All in all, the soundtrack to the movie is actually better than the movie itself. Though, I enjoyed this film as bad it probably is, mainly because of Sharpay's character. The story and musical numbers became less annoying near the end. If you're a fan you might as well watch and just have fun with it. It ain't the best but I'd rather watch this again than "Camp Rock".

After the success of the 2006 wildly popular Disney Channel TV movie, High School Musical, a phenomenon took place on the horizon where not only did the film made theater cool what Harry Potter did for reading books and magic, but it also launched the number one soundtrack of the year followed by concerts and world tours. Yet, a sequel was inevitable and it doesn't have the same flow as the original.

High School Musical 2 takes place a year after Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) became an item to the school where now its summer time with the majority of all the East High Wildcats having plans for summer jobs. Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) and her dweeby brother Ryan (Lucas Grabrel) have plans for the summer with the bratty sister wanting her eyes on the prize: Troy. She'll do anything to get it, even if it means hiring Troy at a country club where he'll work if he can get the East High Cats to work there also, including friends Chad (Corbin Bleu), Taylor (Monique Coleman), Kelsi (Olesya Rulin) and his sweetie, Gabriella.

The good: Ashley Tisdale's performance was gritty and did not change one bit throughout the film as the evil Sharpey Evans. To be honest, it is the best performance out of film compared to on looker Zac Efron.

The OK: The soundtrack itself isn't the same as the original though only a couple of songs are worth hearing from Ashley Tisdale's "Fabolous" to the duet of Zanessa (Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens) Gotta Go My Own Way.

The Bad: In my opinion the film would've been better if everybody including the protagonist (Zac) had better screen time like in the original movie. Even during the conflicts all of the major characters from Gabriella, Taylor and Chad have little less screen time and giving them sappy lines where in the end, all is forgiven.

To Conclude: Maybe the third movie will be the charm.