If you've been looking at ABC-TV for the past week, particularly the morning "news" show, you would think "High School Musical 3" is anticipated with feverish anticipation worldwide. They even identify it, with awe, merely as "HSM3" as if it were in a league with "GWTW." But then, ABC is owned by Disney, the company that specializes in self-promotion via cross-pollination.
There was reason to hope for more than just a rip-off of TV ratings when "High School Musical," a hit for Disney TV with the first two movies, made the transition to the big screen for the third, which opens in theaters today. A bigger budget? A continued rebirth of musical movies? A musical force that, at the least, would introduce the genre to the target audience of 6 to 14?
Only a few of these promises are delivered. Most critics are so scared of this movie that they are copping out right and left. They tend to hide by writing that it has "infectious energy," which, in this case, means that all the actors move, talk and are alive.
If you want to be truthful about it, though, this cast can neither sing nor dance. We are asked to sit quietly and watch as the audience, on-screen, ooohs and ahhs while Juilliard scholarships are thrown at the most mediocre production numbers.
The TV original premiered Jan. 20, 2006, followed by a second movie that took the class on summer vacation. Everything stamped with "HSM" has sold very, very well - DVDs, CDs, pajamas, lamps, toothbrushes and who knows what all.
Thus, we get the second movie this year that depends solely on a TV series as a crossover. The other was "Sex and the City," which brought out its intended audience. If "Saw V" beats "HSM" at the box office this weekend, there is reason, indeed, to fear that civilization is doomed.
The main attraction is the leading man, Zac Efron, who has appeared on more magazine covers than Obama and McCain combined. He is the lone stand-out in a forgettable cast. Efron, 21, has been declared "the new American heartthrob" by Rolling Stone. Indeed, he dances better than David Cassidy did and maybe sings more conventionally than did Ricky Nelson.
Efron is quite appealing, in a way that would make a father feel at ease if he was dating his daughter. He plays Troy Bolton, who ultimately has to make a tough decision whether to take the scholarship to Juilliard and go for Broadway or go to the University of Albuquerque on a basketball scholarship. (Seeing him compete in college basketball is a bit of a stretch, but this is fantasy time). Efron has charisma. Talent can be developed.
Troy loves math whiz Gabriella Montez, who faces the tough choice of whether to take an early scholarship to Stanford and miss the senior class show. She's played by Vanessa Hudgens, who, predictably, is dating Efron in real life (at least through opening weekend).
Ashley Tisdale returns as the evil blonde who wants to steal the spotlight, and Lucas Grabeel is her dancing twin brother who wears pink trousers. Corbin Bleu remains Troy's best friend.
Most lacking are the several newcomers, none of whom score - including Matt Prokop as Jimmie "The Rocket" Zara, a goofball-wannabe, and Jemma McKenzie-Brown as a British schemer. Forgettable.
The colors are all prime -with an emphasis on reds and oranges, but there is a failure to distinguish between stage production and reality production. Not every wall in the world should look like red cardboard. Kenny Ortega is not Gene Kelly when it comes to choreography, much less direction of scripted scenes. He steals one dance-around from "West Side Story," but it's hardly recognizable. The junkyard scene, which comes closest to real exuberance, cries out for a "Go Greased Lighting" flair, as in "Grease."
It's a sure bet that none of these kids are pregnant or going to Iraq, which, after all, is a blessing for an escapist film. The best thing we can say about it is that it retains some of the naive quality of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney when they exclaimed, "Let's put on a show!"
While we can be grateful that it is all "clean," the fact remains that a real musical needs good songs, singers and dancers. We'll have to fall back on "infectiously energetic."
Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
