High School Musical 3

Troy(Zac Efron), Gabriella(Vanessa Hudegens) Sharpay(Ashely Tisdale) Ryan(Lucas Grabeel), Chad(Corbin Bleu) and the rest of the bunch are all back, this time it is senior year. The Wildcats have just won their second straight state basketball championship (The rousing opening number Now or never) and now Gabriella has just kind of forced the entire gang into the Spring Musical. Being that they have a girl at school who writes musicals they decide to do an original musical that will be entitled Senior Year and will include things like Prom and other senior year activities. Issues arise when Gabriella gets an early admission to Stanford and leaves the Wildcats behind. Troy is unsure of what he wants from his future with pressure coming from everywhere to go to the local college to play basketball. Also, Julliard has extended a full ride scholarship to one of the students, but received 4 applications and will be coming to the musical to make their decision. Sharpay is still annoying and whiny and wants to be the girl who gets the scholarship and will go to great lengths to get it. A few younger students are introduced to perhaps carry on the HSM legacy. People sing and dance in the rain, Troy and Gabriella finally kiss and Troy gets his serious angst on. Pretty typical HSM stuff.

Here is the part where I review things and by reviewing this movie I am supposed to talk about how stupid it is and all of that. I want to, trust me. I do. But something is holding me back. I know, I am a 28 year old straight male who has somewhat high standards for movies and I am quick to tear stupid kid movies apart and do not tell anyone this but, I kind of enjoyed it! Is it corny? Well, duh of course it is. I could sit and talk about how this is some weird fantasy world and how childish these high school kids are, but we all know that about these movies. Musical comedies are not grounded in reality. They are absurd by just existing and is it so wrong that here is a musical that kids can enjoy. The drama teacher in the movie says that "The stage can be a great help on the road to self discovery" and is that such a bad thing to say? For a decade the stage was where I made myself into the person I am today. So what if the music is too pop heavy and the voices aided by computers. Does anyone really care? Look these movies speak to a very specific demographic, I get that. However, I was tapping my toes right along with them. There is something to be said for the team of song writers to write such catchy music.

There are a few wonderfully produced numbers, "I want it all", "The Boys are back" and the finale "High School musical" and the cast performs them with the kind of energy any director directing any musical would kill to have. It is not all great though as the slower numbers falter because there is not as much energy surrounding them. Efron and Hudgens make a very winning couple on screen as they both look amazing and have a very safe sexual spark. Zac Efron is the one of this group who appears to have break-out success potential. Many people do not like him in these movies because they see him as a wrong fit for the character. He does seem to have some trouble with all of the angst because, well he is Zac Efron and life as him is not very angsty. However, his solo emo number "scream", while unintentionally comical at times, provides a nice outlet for his Footloose like potential. He commands the screen nicely and while his look of sadness is kind of funny looking, he does the job he is supposed to do.

There is something comforting about a world where a team of high school kids wins a championship and it is celebrated with a big family cook-out and not the drinking and general debauchery that is typical and more realistic. High School Musical looks like something out of Pleasantville, yes, but who cares. In high school so many people went through the same issues. When presented with a choice of where to go to college, I buckled under expectations and have regretted it ever since. I admire the ideals of Troy Bolton choosing the school outside of what was expected. High School Musical 3 takes what worked in the first two movies and made better use of the bigger budgets with neat camera tricks and big production values. It doesn't come off as forced the way HSM 2 did and maybe it does not have all of that lightening in a bottle Disney magic of the first one, but it is an earnest, honest, non-ironic look at a fantasy universe where the mother of the brainiac likes that she is dating the big man on campus. Do not think the movie is completely void of knowing that the girls love Efron. The movie opens on a shot of his eyes and sweaty face and he does strip his shirt off, but that is about as PG as it gets. High School Musical exists in a world of the un-ironic. It does not wink at itself or get meta. It believes in everything it says, dances and sings. It is kind of refreshing, to be honest.

Final Grade: B-