Review: High School Musical 3: Senior Year

"High School Wasn't Meant to Last Forever."

Wow.

That was...amazing. Hilarious. I had an incredible time.

ALSO, I totally won the High School Musical 3 soundtrack from JustJared. It only took over 100 comments and an hour of my time, but I totally won. I can't tell you how much that increases my love of the film.

P.S.: The video quality isn't too high on some of these vids. I'll be updating them with better ones when they become available. For the in-theatre ones, the video gives you the gist, although the audio will probably deafen you. Also, some are in French.

Summary:

We open up on the state basketball championship. The Wildcats are getting beaten like scrambled eggs and all mopey. At the time out, Coach Bolton (suffering from the Lizzie McGuire Movie curse of bad movie hair) reminds them that they have only 16 minutes left to play ball as Wildcats. Ever. He then turns it over to the captains. And you think, wait, isn't Troy the captain? And then you remember it's a Disney movie and you can share everything.

Troy and Chad stand at the front. Troy gives an inspiring speech about guts and glory and 16 minutes and Chad just stares blankly ahead before starting a "What Team?!" "Wildcats!" cheer. "Now or Never" starts playing and I'm already bubbling with excitement.



The Wildcats start whooping White Knight ass. Troy gets fouled and the song slows down into his reverie. He doesn't know if he has the strength to do it. BUT WAIT! Gabriella pops out of the crowd like a daisy and sings her support. Troy scores.

After scoring lots of points, they only need to make one more basket. Troy's being ganged up upon, so he suggests bringing in "The Rocket," who turns out to be a boy with incredibly long bangs who seems like he is one step away from saying "DUDE" ala Keanu Reeves. The Rocket scores. WILDCATS WIN!

Party at the Boltons'! Aly and AJ are playing as Troy and Chad get various congratulations.

Troy and Gabriella hide away in his tree house which she's never been in despite over a year of dating. They lament how he's going to University of Albuquerque and she's going to Stanford. Shucks. Long distance sucks. Troy looks down sadly with a face that could only mean "I need to break out in song." The face manifests into "Right Here, Right Now" which is cute, but would be my selection of the Troy/Gabriella duet to cut in order to give other people more screen time. She ends up in his arms and before he can kiss her, she squirms away and makes fun of his robot. Added to the reasons I dislike Gabriella.



School! The Next Day! Sharpay comes to school in her pink pink pink car. (Although, you sort of wonder how Ryan got to school.) Boys faint. She's hot. She asks Troy how the game was before getting distracted and heading out. Zeke is smitten. Well, she IS fabulous.

Sharpay is greeted by new British exchange student Tiara Gold. Other than having a name that I used for my fake princesses in my fourth-grade scribbles, she's more than willing to be Sharpay's personal assistant. Sharpay embraces slave labor and accepts.

Homeroom with Ms. Darbus. Apparently no one signed up for the spring musical, so Kelsi just signed everyone up in order to prevent a Sharpay one-woman show. That's right. Guilt your friends into the musical.

Everyone is pissed off (I wonder why). Gabriella says that they should do the musical because it'll be their last show together. No one agrees. Troy says that they should do the musical because it'll be their last show together. Everyone thinks it's a great idea.

Ms. Darbus loves the idea of everyone being involved, especially since Julliard is coming to see (hahahaha! because that's how Julliard works) four candidates for their scholarship: Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi...and Troy. Basketball guys laugh. The entire theatre's audience laughs. Troy looks like he's been shot.

Sharpay is livid. She wants that Julliard scholarship, so she convinces Ryan to help her get ahold of the duet Kelsi's writing for Troy and Gabriella so that they can sing it. (Seriously. Sharpay and Ryan's duets are far too incestuous and not nearly self-aware enough.) They sing "I Want It All" to talk about how their lives will change after they attend Julliard. It's a high-power, flashy number that is theatrical and full of spectacle. My favorite part? Troy being a rabid Sharpay fan, tattoo and all.



The next day, Gabi is all stressed out about how the musical is the same time as the Stanford honor program's summer learning fun program. Troy, oblivious, pulls Gabriella onto the roof where she helps him pick a blazer for prom (uh, don't they usually come with pants? also, all of them except the black one look tacky as hell) in their Rooftop Arboretum of Love. He's worried because he can't waltz, since that's the kind of dancing the kids do at prom. (To quote my AP Euro teacher: "When I was in high school, parents were worried about teens getting pregnant after prom. Now, I'm worried that you'll get pregnant on the dance floor.") Gabriella teaches him how to dance as they sing "Can I Have This Dance," which is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, song from the movie. The dance is over-choreographed and I worry far too often about seeing Vanessa's lower lady bits, but the song is sweet and even a little sexy as they're caught in the rain.



Chad assumes that Taylor is going to prom with him, which, for Taylor, is a not the way she's being asked to prom. Finally, with the"help" of Troy, he asks her out in front of the entire cafeteria with some sad-looking flowers and she says yes.

Prom dress shopping! It's "A Night to Remember." The girls are eager, the boys are panicked. I would also panic. I mean, those dresses are worse than some you see in CW proms. In a fabulous twist, what seems like a dance number in the movie is actually a dance number in the spring musical.



Back to Ryan. Seriously. That boy has barely any screen time and he's my favoritest. Anyway. Ryan. Ryan embarks on Quest "Get Sharpay into Julliard" by cozying up with Kelsi as she's composing. They start singing her duet-in-progress "Just Wanna Be with You" before it morphs into Troy and Gabi singing it at rehearsal. It's a fab song and Ryan, inspired, asks Kelsi to prom. Does this mean he's straight? And what about Jason and Kelsi? Whatever. They're adorable.



Troy's car is a pile of crap, so he and Chad head out to the junkyard where they reminisce about their childhood together during "The Boys Are Back" which features adorable mini Chad and Troy. They rhyme "superhero" with "DeNiro." Chad thinks their duet is evidence for the strength of their teamwork when they go to UofA in the fall. Troy, on the other hand, is trying to suggest that he may go elsewhere, but his uncertainties fall on deaf ears.



Tiara finds out that Gabriella has gotten into the Stanford Awesome Young People of Learning Program and can't star in the musical. She tells Sharpay who tells Troy.

Troy hosts an impromptu picnic in Gabriella's room (because that's why teenagers sneak into each others' rooms) before he confronts her about Young Awesome Program. She's evasive, as usual, and says goodbye. While the audience thinks she's saying goodbye because, um, it's nighttime, apparently her mom thought it would be a great idea to move to California weeks before the end of her senior year. You know, so she can miss her finals and fail out. Gabriella whines in "Walk Away" how her life sucks and how she hates leaving Troy and how she just wants to rip the bandaid off.



Troy, whipped as usual, is angst to the tenth power. Chad and Mr. Bolton try to use logic ("Uh, didn't you know she was going to California? Didn't you guys discuss these issues in, like, your opening duet?";"Shouldn't you think about college?"), but Troy will have none of it. He decides to break into the building and alternate between being emo and shirtless as he sings about how he wants to "Scream." He bounds through the gym, gets attacked by falling basketballs, and then proceeds to go to the theater where he pulls at the ropes on the fly rail (I nearly had a heart attack), before screaming in the middle of the stage. Ms. Darbus is creepily sitting in the audience and tells Troy that she's the one that submitted his application to Julliard. She suggests that theatre may be his calling. Or primal screaming. Whatever.



Gabriella, biking all over Stanford montage-style, calls Troy. He's excited because she promised to fly down for prom. However, Gabriella, in her true let's-break-up-with-my-awesome-boyfriend-just-because-I-can't-put-effort-into-my-relationships style, ends their relationship because she can't take the pain. She tries to comfort him by saying, "I love you, Wildcat," but it comes out awkward and groan-worthy. Further evidence why I don't like Gabi. Seriously. One prom? Wouldn't kill you.

Troy, still whipped, drives out to Stanford and waits for Gabi in a tree. Because he thinks better there. Oh-kay. He's all tuxed out and asks her to dance ("Can I Have This Dance (Reprise)"). They're back together and actually kiss. More than once. Whoa. Scandal.

Back at the musical, Sharpay has been rehearsing Gabriella's parts. Unknown to her, Troy is running late, driving back from California with Gabi. So Troy's understudy, The Rocket, will go on for him. The Rocket attempts to make a move on Sharpay during their duet, but it fails.

The show turns out to be good, although the Julliard people are so stereotypically theatre-y they might as well be wearing berets. Gabi and Troy get back in time to redo their duet. Tiara has taken Sharpay's solo, which she will have none of, and they sing the song together. The final number is a total Waa-Mu rip-off as everyone takes the stage in graduation robes.



Ms. Darbus then proceeds to do the most awkward thing ever and puts the seniors on the spot about their futures. Ryan and Kelsi get the Julliard scholarships. Sharpay is going to UofA (??? Because there aren't OTHER good theatre schools) and will help run the drama department at East High (WHY, Ashley Tisdale, WHY?!) Troy, when under the special, confesses that he's going to attend UC Berkeley (because, schools totally let you change where you're going to attend after May 1st). Chad is pissed and leaves the stage. Troy goes to get him and finds him on the basketball court. There's bro-hug. Mr. Bolton then comes out and he and Troy father-son-hug.

Everyone graduates ("We're All In This Together (Graduation Mix)") and celebrates their last year at East High ("High School Musical").



All in all, a fabulous movie.

Additional comments:

1. Where Were Ryan and Sharpay?

In fact, where was the entire cast? The movie was so ridiculously focused on Troy and Gabriella (THREE duets? REALLY?!) that we lost a lot of the great character moments that we got in the previous movies. HSM2, in particular, was a great character movie (if not that good of an actual movie). Where were the moments that added that third dimension to the characters?

Sharpay: I love Sharpay. She's, well, fabulous. But this movie really simplified who Sharpay is. She wants to get into Julliard, so she wants to trade in her SOLO for a DUET? It's still obvious in this movie that Sharpay likes Troy a lot, but I feel without knowing the lengths she will go to in order to sing with him and how much that means to her (HSM2), it seems strange. Also, does she HAVE to to the villain? The end of senior year is plenty of drama without needing Sharpay to sprinkle some fake drama in. Most of her scenes were of her plotting...absolutely nothing. Just plotting. It's really hard to get a fair amount of camp with real emotion, but Sharpay's breakdown in HSM2 is one of my favorite moments of the series, ever. I wish they'd let her evolve in this movie instead of just let her rehash in whatever screentime she could. Also, I hate how in every movie Sharpay ends up being friends with the main gang and then someone, strangely, in the next movie they're barely talking.

Ryan: Where was he? There was a great storyline set-up: seduce and destroy Kelsi and get him and Sharpay the Julliard scholarship. But then we got...uh, a duet? For, like, thirty seconds? And a prom that we never saw? Ryan is such a great character who, unlike most of the characters, I would say has actually evolved throughout the movies. Ryan started the series off as his sister's comic relief sidekick and ended it a star choreographer who tolerated his sister more than he actually entertained her ideas. It's such a shame that he was a background character in this movie. (Although, when he was in the background, he was dancing the girl parts with Troy during rehearsals, so...that was fabulous.)

Chad: How cute was it that we got a BFF song? Troy and Chad usually get great but small friendship moments (the skipping Englishmen from HSM2 comes to mind), but to get an entire song was wonderful. The only problem is that the song was meant to set-up Chad being angry with Troy's decision. And there was practically no pay-off. Come on. Chad would never let Troy get away with that. If we learned anything from the previous two movies, Chad is not very forgiving. He gets angry fast and then, after being catty, calms down and sees the big picture.

Taylor: Didn't hate her. She was still stubborn, but she was much more supportive in this movie than she has been in the past. I really got the feelings that she had matured in some OffScreen Musical in her relationships with the other characters, especially Chad. I still believe that the actress is thinking in every scene, "I graduated from DePaul to do THIS?!"

Kelsi: She's always been a friend of the main gang, but this movie let her be on the inside. I loved her moment with Troy where she tried to comfort him after Gabriella left.

What about the other characters? Zeke? Jason? Zeke has gotten Sharpay at the end of each previous movie; Jason's gotten Kelsi. And now they get...nothing? *Le Sigh* Whatever.

But Melissa! What about the New Cast?

Um...

Uh...

Okay. Diving in.

Tiara: Looks EXACTLY like Billie Piper in a way that is distracting. Eh. She wasn't bitchy enough for me to care for her. British bitchy comes off more pompous than devious/petty.

The Rocket: You CAN NOT base a movie on a STONER. Okay, well, obviously, since it's Disney he's not a stoner. But he's too oblivious to anchor a movie. And I'm afraid he doesn't have the emotional strength and presence that Zac does to ground the movies.

Dion: WHY is everyone on the Wildcats basketball team so short?! Seriously. But I'm excited to see a main cast member being on stage crew.

2. Troy Bolton = Love

On the big screen, Zac Efron's upper arms are, like, the
size of a small automobile.

I was recently re-listening to the HSM soundtrack and it was incredibly jarring to hear Drew Seeley's voice instead of Zac's. I love me some baritone.

Anyway. While the first movie was pretty equally split between Gabriella and Troy (even favoring Gabi a little bit), the second and third have been more Troy-focused, following Zac Efron's rising star, giving him the central conflict and solo numbers. The past two movies have really shown us the real Troy, who feels an obligation to help everyone and thusly ends up failing to help himself. He has a good heart that is stretched too thin, and despite his desire to please everyone, someone always gets hurt. I think he's a much more compelling character than Gabriella ever could be and that the refocusing of the movies was a wise choice.

Zac spent most of the movie with his puppy face on and was absolutely adorable. He is charismatic and a natural-born leader, but he also feels everything very deeply. He loves Gabriella more than he should and feels an intense devotion to her and his family and friends. I think Zac did a great job conveying the inner conflict of Troy, as well as his strength.

3. Still Don't Like Gabriella.

For the third movie, Gabriella breaks up with Troy and waxes melodic about it. I like how she never, ever considers putting effort into their relationship. Long distance? Why bother. It's so much better to break up with your boy toy on the phone.

Ugh. Gabriella seems to think herself such a tragic character. Yes, she moves a lot. But maybe the reason she doesn't have friends from anywhere else is because she seems to always think it's better to cut off the attachments than trying to maintain them.

Troy is so much better than Gabriella. He's loyal, hard-working, and passionate. You really get the feeling that he works for everything he gets, unlike Gabriella who is all Serena Van der Woodsen perfect without any effort.

I'm so over Gabriella. The only reason I tolerate her is because I love Troy.

4. The Musical Numbers!

The dresses are so hideous. There are feathers exploding
from Sharpay's crouch. *shudder*

There a conceit in movie musicals to make everything grand. Generally, that manifests in placing musical numbers in some nebulous space. But this movie, instead of taking us to that space, placed every number in the theater. The rotating sets, the proscenium-based choreography, the pure spectacle...it was all less movie musical than stage musical and I loved it. I thought it was a truly unique approach to the movie musical that really payed off in the musical-within-a-musical set-up.

5. The End of an Era

High School Musical, HSM2, and HSM3 are really examples of how optimism sells. In a world where everything is dire and the popular literature features battles and vampires and dementors, it's really telling that childhood escapism is just as captivating. When I hit college, there was a very deliberate move on everyone's part toward childhood and remembering the pop culture of the early 90's: Power Rangers, Nickelodeon game shows, and more than anything, Disney movies. There is such an exuberance in the films that is unmatched by what is currently on movie screens. There is a joy of being your true self, of dancing like there's no tomorrow, to borrow a cliche. And I really think that while there eventually will be another form of enthusiastic reminiscence, I don't think it will ever be the same as High School Musical.