Review: High School Musical 3, Where Fancier Isn't Better
- Feb 10, 2018
- 2 min read
High School Musical is a series that does the same stuff on repeat. Sharpay is the bad guy, Troy and Gabriella break up, they get together, and there's plenty of romance between other characters. If they just did this again for High School Musical 3, or instead focussed on graduation drama and the (in-movie) musical at the end, it may not have been a good movie but it would have been better than it is. But this movie tried to have it both ways, and as a result, HSM 3 has nothing interesting to offer but some great musical numbers.
It's senior year, and Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) is given the opportunity to perform for a Juilliard scholarship in the next school musical. He isn't sure whether to pursue singing or basketball, but Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) is offered a place at Stanford that she must attend to in favour of prom and the musical. Meanwhile, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) tries to set Troy up to sing with her in the musical so that she receives the Juilliard scholarship instead.
The plot of High School Musical 3 really isn't anything special. It's just everyone's final year of high school, but with added music and High School Musical tropes, such as Gabriella leaving partway through with a dramatic song, only to return for one last song, and then one last last song with the full cast. But the integration of the drama the students are going through, and the musical which is about the very same thing, is a fascinating concept. It's a High School Musical about the creation of a high school musical, just like the first one, but this time the musical is about the same events as the movie.
The budget has clearly increased drastically, leading to some flashy musical sequences which include more complex props, spinning hallways, and even CGI. It's way more fun, and the music is still great, but it doesn't make the movie a good movie. It suffers from a poor storyline (even by HSM standards) and too much going on to really focus on characters other than Troy, Gabriella, and Sharpay.
If the whole movie was as fun as sequences such as I Want It All, A Night To Remember, and Scream, then the movie might have been as good as either of the others. But as it stands, the songs are the only part of this movie worth watching. And that's harsh criticism coming from a fan who spent a lot of my childhood watching all three of these.
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