High School Musical 3: Senior Year - our review

• Overall review: If you loved the first two High School Musical films, you’ll love this. But you knew that already, didn’t you? ;)

SPOILERS ALERT!! (Not many but a few, so if you’ve not seen it and want it all to be a surprise, don’t read this review yet!)

There is no doubt that, within a certain demographic, High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the most hotly anticipated cinematic event of the year but you wouldn’t have known it from the showing I went to. It was the first screening of opening day so should have been packed out with eager fans, all clutching record-breaking numbers of advance tickets but it’s not half term around here this week so all the eager fans were at school.

There were probably about 20 of us in total and about half of them on accompanying-daughter/girlfriend mode so it wasn’t the most hyped up group going. I suspect it would have felt more like the sensation it is if there had been more people there. It was very quiet, too quiet - no squealing, no giggling, just the occasional swooning gasp (that may have been me) - and that’s just not how this type of film should be watched. It’s a seeing-with-friends, popcorn-and-sweets, sleepover movie.

It starts off on an extreme close-up on Zac Efron’s panting face - fantasy fodder if ever I’ve seen it ;) - and zooms out to show we’re in the middle of the Wildcats final basketball game - the state championship - and they’re not doing too well. A quick retreat to the locker room then into “Now or Never” and the game is turned around - the team are champions (again)! I was actually surprised by this because it felt such an end-of-movie moment and I wondered if I’d blacked out for 90 minutes by mistake - but no.

Because that was over and done with in the first five minutes, the rest of the film can focus on the real important stuff instead: the build-up to the end of term and the prom, and what’s going to happen to Troy and Gabriella when it’s time to go to college.

The pacing of the story seems a bit strange - like the big win, the big “A Night to Remember” song comes much earlier than you would expect - but it does work, and stops it being the same as every other high school graduation film ever. In fact, there is no big prom scene really - and that probably a good thing too, stopping it becoming melodramatic and emotionally manipulative.

That’s not to say there isn’t melodrama - mostly provided by Ashley Tisdale’s Sharpay. I know she’s all about being the OTT prima donna but there were times when Ashley seemed to be hamming it up even more than was necessary (for example, the scene when Ms D is talking about her plans for the show/the Julliard stuff and Sharpay is shaking her head in the background. It was jarring in comparison to the rest of cast and not in a particularly excusable way.)

Vanessa Hudgens and Zac however do their dramatic scenes with much more grace. Vanessa’s big moment is her solo “Walk Away” and while I felt the strength of the vocals didn’t really fit the song or the moment, she did a nice job of … walking away. (Also is it just me or did she spend all her time at Stanford just wandering/cycling around the campus looking thoughtful or sad and not actually attend any lectures?). I also like Zac’s “Scream” - the pace of the song was really good for expressing Troy’s frustration and the choreography for that song was great too - I think the spinning corridor thing was my favourite bit of the whole film.

The rest of the dance numbers felt a little like they were taking place on a traditional stage rather than in a film. I guess this could be explained by the fact there was obviously some cross-over between what we were seeing and what was being performed in the musical in the film - like Ryan’s “I Want It All” fantasy come to live - but it felt a bit lazy too.

I also think it needed to be polished a bit more for the big screen. There were times when it felt like they’d made it in just the same way as the other made-for-TV HSM movies but I think watching something on a cinema screen demands a bit more. These are little things - for example, Gabriella’s dress is torn slighty and gaping at the back during the rooftop waltz scene, Sharpay snags a boob on the balcony during her “Just Want to Be with You” big moment and at times various people’s dancing is just a bit off. A few more takes/a bit of sewing would have easily fixed those but the producers didn’t do it, and that took the edge of the professionalism of the film for me. It’s like they thought that “it’s mainly kids watching it, so what does it matter? Now, servant, throw another $1,000,000 on the fire, my feet are getting cold.”

All in all though, it’s lots of fun and as I said, it avoids falling into most of the obvious high-school-movie cliches, which is a bonus. If you loved the first two High School Musical movies, then you’ll definitely love this one too - in fact I suspect it’ll be your new favourite.

Random thoughts

• What is with Coach Bolton’s hair? Ick.
• It’s probably a glasses bias thing but I thought Oleysa Rulin looked gorgeous throughout and I WANT HER GLASSES.
• If they make a HSM4 and stick at East High (instead of following the crew to college), I think Matt Prokop as The Rocket will do a great job taking over as the lead - he’s preeeeeetty. I’m not as convinced with Jemma McKenzie-Brown as Tiara though.
• Stick around for the credits at the end: there are some outtakes and joke scenes over the first few minutes of them.
• My favourite song: a toss up between “Just Want to Be with You” and “Scream”
• My favourite dance routine: probably “A Night to Remember”
• Least favourite song: probably “Right Here, Right Now”

• What did you think of it? Have your say in the comments section below