High School Musical 3 - Nos années lycée

The thing about the High School Musical franchise is that you either love it or hate it. Ever since the first movie, it has always been like that. I, for one, will now be standing in the middle because I will review this film unbiasedly. I've to say, the movie was fun to watch. It has a very simple storyline, which was made complicated later on in the movie. The characters whom are now in their senior years has to choose where they have to go after they finished high school. This is the story about their hope and fears and choices they have to make. Simple enough...

What amazes me is the dance numbers which had me completely blown away. It was choreographed so sophisticatedly and so beautifully that it will leave the audience enthralled. From a simple waltz during the rooftop scene to a very complicated-sorta-breakdance in the junkyard scene. I give my applause to the choreographers and the dancers. Well done!

The songs, I've to say, are good and most are very catchy and fun to listen to. The lyrics have matured. They are mostly better than the songs from High School Musical and its sequel High School Musical 2. The lead singer of each songs sings the song greatly. My compliment to Efron for his rough and edgy voice and Grabeel for some nice and melodic pitch. Although I'm not quite fond with Hudgen's nasal high-pitch voice.

One thing that I'm not happy with this movie is the fact that most of the musical numbers and songs are performance scene. Whether they're rehearsing the play or the play itself. In a true musical the dancing and singing are the way the characters express their feeling or just a way they talk. It is apart of the story, the dialogue. But in HSM, some of it are performance scene. For example, the prom scene is actually the rehearsal of the actual play. This slightly takes away the musical feel to it.

A bit of a warning though. This movie is made FOR THE FANS ONLY. If you're not a fan, you might want to start with the first HSM and work it up or just stay away from the franchise. Because, if you're not a fan, you might find some of the scenes quite cheesy. From some of the dialogues, to the ending where the camera focuses on the characters' faces before the big red curtain closed, even the last song (entitled "High School Musical") during the graduation is slightly cheesy.

Other than that, I'd say it is a great movie for all ages, especially the young ones. And it is a great family movie if you want some times to relax from the rough actions and romance or even politics of Hollywood.

The songs and the dance moves will keep you glued to the screen.

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.

Because the rest of it is pretty forgetful, not to mention in High School Musical 1 and 2 it was an ensemble, but in the third time around, it is downsized to three of the main characters, Troy(Zak Effron), Gabriella(Vanessa Hudgens), and Sharpay(Ashley Tisdale). The rest, Chad(Corbin Bleau), and Ryan(Lucas Grabeel), I felt did not have much to work with, they where in and out for the most part.

But it did have amazing dance numbers and had great songs, like the first two did, but Effron, Hudgens, and Tisdale just keep repeating themselves. It's entertaining at times dragging. I'll bet the cast is ready to move on after this one, I could see it on most of there faces. It was alright, but not exciting and energetic has the first two.

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.

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.