Last night i got the chance to watch the premiere of High School Musical 3: Senior Year with free tickets courtesy of smashpOp. Thank you very much. Now lets jump into things.
If you have not heard of High School Musical, I'd like to know where you've been the past two years. The HSM franchise started in 2006 as a made-for-TV film by Disney. Following huge success, a sequel was released in 2007, again on the Disney channel. For the third movie, Disney got smart and decided to make some money out of it. Senior Year, just released today, is the only HSM movie to be released in theatres. Some critics say that it will hit the $80million-$100million range in its opening weekend. And yes, I wholly, entirely, completely agree. Why? Because there are that many kids in America.
Obviously stated the title, the movie takes place during the Senior Year of the main characters. They all attend East High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico where they are all about to graduate and move on with their lives. The theme for the movie and the obvious pushing message that Disney is trying to get across is that life changes and you have to make tough decisions on where to go and what to do in life. No one can make those for you. Believe it or not, for a kid's movie, the movie has a pretty interesting theme. The two main characters are Troy Bolton (Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Hudgens). They have been dating for a while now (in the movie and in real life) but as graduation approaches they have to make a decision on what college to go. Troy's dad (also his basketball coach) is pushing him to play basketball at U of A and Gabriella is Stanford bound. It is coming to the end of year and prom, a final senior musical and graduation is being planned out. One of their classmates, Kelsi, suggests that they do a final senior play and the teacher suggests that it be centered on their senior year. An interesting aspect of the movie was how everything in the storyline, was intertwined with what was happening in the senior musical. The villain of the film, Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) wants the play to be all about her and wants no one involved. Sharpay and her brother Ryan are very selfish people (Ryan not so much) that want to advanced their career in theatre. Once the group play is decided on, the students find out that Juilliard scouts will be watching and choosing one student to attend their school. The drama has begun and the let the singing and dancing begin.
It goes without saying that the targeted audience are the 'tweens', kids aged from 9 to maybe 16? I dunno. But you get my point. When I was watching, I had to hold back my scoffing, keeping in mind that this film was meant for 'zee little ones'. But if i were to be completelt and totally honest, I could sum up the film realistically in a few words. Like. PREDICTABLE. CHEESY. PHONY. TOO PERFECT. WEIRD. WAAAAY BEYOND CLICHED. But then again, HSM, made for kids.
Seriously, this is how the movie was like. The dialogue...yucky. Made me feel awkward. Especially everytime Gabriella called Troy 'Wildcat'. I wanted to puke.
Another thing...WILDcat. There is absolutely nothing WILD about East High or the students. In the movie i think Troy and Gabriella kissed only once. But many other times when they had scenes where their faces were close together, I could see it in Zac and Vanessa's eyes they were holding back their hornyness bcuz obviously, this being a kiddy movie, it wasn't in the script for them to kiss. And we all know that these two are a horny bunch. You want proof? Do some pictures splashed all over the internet remind you of anything. But seriously. This is supposed to be HIGH SCHOOL in AMERICA. Everything just feels so perfect and innocent and its definitely not portraying what high school should be like. I know, i know. Movie for kids. But still, at least sustain some degree of realism...something Disney always finds hard to do. Haha.
But its not all doom and gloom from me. It actually lives up to its name, being a musical, it had some cool tunes. A few of my favorite parts of the film was the 'Broadway' part by Sharpay and Ryan ("I Want It All"), the part with Chad and Troy at the junkyard ("The Boys Are Back"), when Troy went bonkers in his school at night ("Scream") where there was this awesome scene where the hallway is rotating and he falls onto the wall then slides to the ceiling then slides to the wall again...you get it, and finally, the finale song where they graduate ("High School Musical").
I might've criticised this movie a whole lot while being really sarcastic and mean and sounding as if i was never a kid. But if you're 18 years old, you'll know what i mean. Having said that, I'm still gonna have to say that I liked the movie. Yes call me a hypocrite. But just watch the movie. You;ll have your adult mind telling you to walk out of the cinema hall and get away from all the kids but also, it'll bring out your kiddy mind thats telling you to stand up, dance along and belt out an HSM tune.
Although i doubt there will be an HSM 4, you never know. But if this is the and of Wildcats and singing and dancing and high school, then kudos to Disney and the director, Kenny Ortega for letting it go out with a bang. From the start go, it was obvious they stepped it up a gear and that so much more effort was put in to make it a fitting movie to be put up on the big screen.
Since there are so many dimensions for this movie, i give it three ratings.
In general, 1.5 out of 5 popcorns
As a kiddy movie, 3.5 out of 5 popcorns
As part of the HSM series, 5 out if 5 popcorns. The best one yet.
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