Bright lights, title card. Fade up on Zac Efron's sweaty, panting, preternaturally pretty face. The East High Wildcats are 16 minutes and several points away from the championship. There's only one thing to do: burst into song.
Welcome to "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."
For the first time, the indelible "HSM" franchise has premiered on the silver screen. The original "High School Musical" (2006), a Disney Channel original movie, was a sleeper tween hit. In the summer of 2007, over 17 million viewers tuned in for the premiere of "High School Musical 2."
The first sequel ramped up the franchise's campy tone and catchy tunes, and both movies quickly became a phenomenon with both tweens and irony-loving young adults. The "HSM" formula translates to cinema intact, albeit on a larger scale, as Troy (played by Efron), Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) and their friends traverse their senior year of high school.
Though critics have every reason to pick apart "HSM" for its poor acting, nonsensical plots and overly-produced songs, there's no denying the franchise's entertainment value. One doesn't need to root for its saccharine romance or swoon for its heartthrobs in order to get a good laugh at the expense of the predictable and often-ridiculous dialogue or the uncomfortable homoerotic undertones.
"HSM 3" continues its trend of fetishizing the high-school experience. The characters seem torn between wanting to live in the moment and wanting to move on to the future. Troy and Gabriella deal with the anxiety of choosing the right school and being apart from each other while they confront high-school milestones like prom and graduation. Mercifully, "HSM 3" never tries to make its audience believe that the central couple's love is threatened; many teen-movie-melodrama clichés are refreshingly ignored in this franchise.
This time around, the Wildcats actually produce a high-school musical about their own senior year, penned by Kelsi (Olesya Rubin) and choreographed by Ryan (Lucas Grabeel). In a maddening bit of either unnecessary meta-text or lazy writing, the climactic performance of the musical allows for reprises of nearly every song that has already appeared in the movie. And as if to punctuate this unwelcome bit of self-awareness, the final number of the film is actually called "High School Musical."
The many "HSM 3" musical numbers oscillate between sober, repetitive love duets ("Right Here, Right Now," "Can I Have This Dance," "Just Wanna Be with You") and elaborate brightly colored sequences that come off more as fever dreams than as musical pieces. "I Want It All," sung by drama-loving twins Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) and Ryan pays clumsy homage to the genre classic "Singin' in the Rain" (1952). "The Boys Are Back" features Troy and best buddy Chad (Corbin Bleu) dancing in an abandoned junkyard as they reminisce about their friendship.
In "Scream," Troy contemplates his choice between a future in basketball or in theater while he dances angrily through the empty high school during a lightning storm. Efron is not an accomplished dancer, but he throws his whole self into his performance here, evoking Kevin Bacon's performance in "Footloose" (1984) (set, incidentally, to be remade by "HSM" director Kenny Ortega, starring Efron). He punches basketballs, slides down hallways and even rips down an enormous banner of himself. This kind of sublime ridiculousness recalls Efron's "HSM 2" solo, "Bet On It."
It's true that most of the "HSM" cast is subpar in acting and singing, though many of them are talented dancers. Roles like Chad, Taylor (Monique Coleman) and Kelsi have been forcibly expanded since the actors were cast as tertiary characters, and the actors struggle to meet expectations. However, there are some bright spots among the Wildcats.
Grabeel is a charismatic actor with by far the most powerful singing voice. Tisdale's Sharpay is often the most entertaining character on screen. Efron has a newly developed charm and genuineness that has even earned him success independent of "HSM" with "Hairspray" (2007) and the upcoming "17 Again" (2009).
It's clear that the kids in the cast really do like each other, and that natural camaraderie helps carry the otherwise thin script. Ortega is wise to rely heavily on the chemistry between Efron and Hudgens. The hand of Disney, however, still has a tight grasp. Though the couple's real-life romantic relationship has become tabloid controversy, their characters have only kissed twice in three movies.
"HSM 3" ends with graduation, and it feels like the cast's graduation as well. The door is open for a fourth film, however. "Senior Year" implies a sort of "HSM: The New Class" by introducing underclassmen Jimmy (Matt Prokop) and Tiara (Jemma McKenzie-Brown). But neither is compelling enough to take the franchise from the first group of Wildcats' clumsy-but-enjoyable hands.
