"High School Musical 3: Senior Year" Review - Written by TonyD

“High School Musical 3: Senior Year”
2008
**½ out of ****
Director: Kenny Ortega
Cast: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale


And so it has been said that for the critic who has sat through all of the “High School Musical” films should get a medal. For the past three years I have been tormented with their singing and dancing, but perhaps if the “High School Musical” series really wanted to impress me they would focus on the real trouble that teenagers face in America instead of focusing on the singing and dancing. The first film was all about just fucking being annoying little teenagers who think they could do about anything they felt like doing. The second was almost the same, just they had a few boundaries that they couldn’t get past.

By god, someone actually listened to me about the third film.

I was actually planning on tearing “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” a new ass after I watched it. I will not lie. I saw the first two and if you averaged the two ratings together, both films averaged a one star rating from me. I never hated the “High School Musical” films for their singing and dancing, but rather for how the characters had acted. In the first two movies, we have gotten to know such personalities as Troy Bolton (Zac Efron, America’s golden child) as being the sexy but awesome basketball star, Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) to be the “perfect girlfriend,” and Sharpay and Ryan Evans (Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel) as being the rich and bratty siblings who probably always had a thing for one another. And in the third one, we finally get to know everyone’s true feelings, which bring a decent conclusion to a mediocre series of films.

Troy and his team of Wildcats have now won their school’s championship, and before he graduates, he now begins looking forward to senior prom, graduating, and, of course, the spring musical. While Gabriella already knows what she plans to do for her future, Troy is going apeshit trying to think what he is going to do without her. As for everyone else in this tale of singing and dancing, Chad (Corbin Bleu) is forced to face the separation of him and Troy, and Sharpay and Ryan do almost anything to get into Julliard.

The first “High School Musical” was all about marketing the soon-to-be team phenomenon, with music that almost defined high school. But while “HSM” became popular with teenagers for the music, not a single person realized what that film was really saying. It’s alright if you can sing and dance on top of cafeteria tables, just as long as you got a voice to do it. I tried that at my school and all I get is a suspension. Then the second film came and it was almost “useless,” but it was an improvement over the first one in terms of plot and character development.

I’m glad to see the third one really does improve on everything that the first two didn’t have. It has a few memorable songs that are sure to be on a few charts in the next few weeks and it is an excellent way at looking at how seniors in high school really act. It’s all about the choices that we make and how we must face them in the future, and some of us can take it the way that it is given to us and others can’t accept it the way it is. Kenny Ortega and the crew spell it out in the music – making choices suck.

Speaking of the music, this is the first time that I can really think since the first one that the music was actually memorable. If the first film had any little good in it, it was that the music will stick in your head for a few days. The second film had music that was so unmemorable that you forgot the tunes before the film even ended. There are quite a few numbers here where they are catchy and pretty well sung. And if it wasn’t for the choreography done by Kenny Ortega, I doubt that any of this would have been memorable at all.

But here is something that I caught the more I really thought about the film. There are two numbers in the film that almost seem like that they would be more enjoyable to watch if you were under the influence of narcotics. I don’t want to spoil any of the numbers, but I think that this is now the “Across the Universe” of kid musicals. By god’s son, these fucking musical numbers are trippy!

It was almost certain that I was going to hate the new “High School Musical” because I hated the other two, but it’s definitely one of the more pleasant surprises of the year. I’ll probably never watch it again, and I’ll probably forget about it after I publish the review, but still, it deserves a little bit of attention. And as being the more decent musical out of the two that were released this year, it’s definitely should be rented. Fans of the first two shouldn’t be disappointed, and why should you be? Everyone is back and it ended on such a high note.

And something says that execs want to make a sequel.