High School Musical 3: Senior Year

On sunday i went and saw HSM3 with Karen and Night Hawk, and kelly and morgan were there too.
I have to say, that cos im a fan, i was totally into it the whole time and had a massive smile on my face throughtout the whole thing.
but from a critical point of view i dont think it shaped up too the previous too films.
First of all, and one of the most annoying things was the fact that during every song, the music was actually louder than the singing. this meant it was hard to understand some of the lyrics, but whether this was just because it was in the cinema or cos it was badly made, will be hard to tell until it comes out on dvd(which i will be buying).
i was also annoyed because i think it lost some of its quirkiness and edginess, although this was covered up by the introduction of a new character, who thought he was the second coming of Troy Bolton. This character did have his moments, but made me think that he was just introduced for the chance to cash in on a possible spin-off, or another sequel. In the second high school musical, new characters were not introduced, but the the roles of backup characters were increased. i wish this was the case for HSM3, because there are a few (like Zeke, Kelsy and Jason) that could have played a larger role.
i also believe that HSM3 grew to an all time level of cheesiness. It surprised me how someone could make a movie about teenage issues, and stick a G rating to. Though the director does his best to make it happen, i still feel that not many people would be able to relate to the issues involved. Kids that the film is normally targeted at would not get the whole college thing, especially ones from Australia. And teenagers who understand the whole going to college thing would probably feel that a whole lot of stuff is missed out.
i think the HSM franchise should have ended at the end of school, and just glazed over the college scenario.
It also annoyed me(though i doubt anyone else) that it is clear that Corbin Bleau is the biggest kook at basketball ever. his character is meant to be recieving a scholarship at UA to play ball, yet you see his character make a layup in one of the final scenes and it is blatantly obvious that he has never picked up a ball in his life, before HSM.

But besides all this, the few minor things i disliked were greatly outweighed by the things i did like.
many of the songs were catchy (ask tom who started singing one in the middle of the cinema after knowing it from the preview) and the dance routines were spectacular as usual.

there was even one song, that sharpay was singing, where the characters were all in a hypothetical stage world where Troy was a love-sick sharpay fan, Chad a policeman and Kelsy a taxi driver. This was one of the highlights of all 3 movies, and was really cleverly put together.

It will be hard to tell if this HSM will live up to the others, because it is the sort of movie that you enjoy more once you know the songs well enough too sing to.

Hopefully its out on DVD by christmas!

3.5/5