High School Musical
You can talk to any teenager today and they will probably tell you that High School Musical is really stupid, pointless and a bad franchise. While lots of people my age have a genuine nostalgic attachment to it, there's definitely some hostility about it. Its that bad of a movie! And it has a %56 on Rotten Tomatoes... huh...
I guess my question is: what's so bad about this film? It isn't the worst film ever, and there's certainly some charm to it, so why are we as a species so worked up about these moves? Come with me into a magical world of song, dance and corporate licencing. Onwards, to glory!
So as the film opens we see the worst performance in the film reading a book on New Years Eve. Gabriela is played by Vanessa Hudgens, and how this girl became a professional actress is beyond me. I mean, she's hot, but she just sounds like she's whining all the time. Technically speaking, Zac Efron is worlds better at his job. At least he's trying to play a character! Vanessa's just there. She's using miscellaneous underacted performance #09206... Is she still acting?
Yes, she is still acting. She was in Sucker Punch and Machete Kills and... well she's been pretty promiscuous film wise. I'm actually surprised by that. So, has she been in anything I know? I mean High School Musical was pretty early in her film career, she could have gotten much better since.... She was that girl in Journey 2 the Mysterious Island (really? huh...). Well I can say that she should have gone into music production. She has a remarkable voice, and that's the reason they picked her, it's just her acting that's shallow and hasn't improved.
Than again, all the acting in this film is a bit hokey. Efron is really the only decent actor, or maybe Troy just has better dialogue than everyone else, but, again, this is part of the film's camp.
The performance that stole the show for everyone was Ashley Tisdale, so much so that she went on to play Candice in Phineas and Ferb (the best animated kids show in the history of ever). And I can see why people like her. Sharpay and Ryan Evans exist in a bit of a Dangerous Liaisons pocket universe where they do nothing but mess with less intelligent poor people. These two characters are the best in the film. Sharpay is constantly under the impression that the film is actually about her. It's really about Troy and Gabriella, but we'll get back to this later.
With that in mind, I would now like to argue that the film has no clearly defined villain except for society. Here's my reading:
The main conflict of the story is Troy and Gabriella coming out of the clos- I mean social roles, they come from sports and nerdy backgrounds and now are going into musical theater. This prompts everyone else to come out of the clos- I mean social norms and admit that they are ga- I mean in to other things! Sharpay and Ryan don't like this because that takes their focus away, and they also feel intimidated by Troy and Gabby, leading to a series of black-mailings (kind of) that don't really do anything except clearly define how how this social structure works.
The real threat doesn't come until partway through when the math nerds and the basketball guys form a fiendish plan to separate Gabby and Troy. This leads to the second worst song ever written by a human, but in the end is pointless and easily solved. This film has really weak conflicts but the main villains of the story aren't the main villains. Society is. The films meta-narrative is one of acceptance of homosexuality, or really any persecuted group, if you look at it through the right lens. So if somebody ever says "That film is gay!" they're actually kind of on to something.
The point that I'm trying to make is that Sharpay is actually this film's focus, chronicling the futile attempts of homophobic groups (or any prejudiced communities for that matter) to get people to straighten out and eventually being overthrown only to do the exact same thing in the sequel. Yes this film might be sloppily written, and the conflict doesn't make any sense, but through some fluke of probably accidental symbolism this film is actually kind of genius.
BUT THAT ASIDE it still just isn't a good movie technically. That's literally the only thing interesting about it! It's boringly shot, boringly acted, and boring! You know what's about to happen %99.99 of the time. It's the hand sanitizer of TV movies.
So the way the film ends is a big stupid climax organized by team rocket where everything is happening at the same time and they need to pull some pretty elaborate crap off to get to the call back audition, but long story short the film ends with the worst song written by a sentient creature that I have come across.
Wait, what are you doing? No, don't play it! PLEASE DON'T PLAY IT!
I guess my question is: what's so bad about this film? It isn't the worst film ever, and there's certainly some charm to it, so why are we as a species so worked up about these moves? Come with me into a magical world of song, dance and corporate licencing. Onwards, to glory!
So as the film opens we see the worst performance in the film reading a book on New Years Eve. Gabriela is played by Vanessa Hudgens, and how this girl became a professional actress is beyond me. I mean, she's hot, but she just sounds like she's whining all the time. Technically speaking, Zac Efron is worlds better at his job. At least he's trying to play a character! Vanessa's just there. She's using miscellaneous underacted performance #09206... Is she still acting?
Yes, she is still acting. She was in Sucker Punch and Machete Kills and... well she's been pretty promiscuous film wise. I'm actually surprised by that. So, has she been in anything I know? I mean High School Musical was pretty early in her film career, she could have gotten much better since.... She was that girl in Journey 2 the Mysterious Island (really? huh...). Well I can say that she should have gone into music production. She has a remarkable voice, and that's the reason they picked her, it's just her acting that's shallow and hasn't improved.
Than again, all the acting in this film is a bit hokey. Efron is really the only decent actor, or maybe Troy just has better dialogue than everyone else, but, again, this is part of the film's camp.
The performance that stole the show for everyone was Ashley Tisdale, so much so that she went on to play Candice in Phineas and Ferb (the best animated kids show in the history of ever). And I can see why people like her. Sharpay and Ryan Evans exist in a bit of a Dangerous Liaisons pocket universe where they do nothing but mess with less intelligent poor people. These two characters are the best in the film. Sharpay is constantly under the impression that the film is actually about her. It's really about Troy and Gabriella, but we'll get back to this later.
With that in mind, I would now like to argue that the film has no clearly defined villain except for society. Here's my reading:
The main conflict of the story is Troy and Gabriella coming out of the clos- I mean social roles, they come from sports and nerdy backgrounds and now are going into musical theater. This prompts everyone else to come out of the clos- I mean social norms and admit that they are ga- I mean in to other things! Sharpay and Ryan don't like this because that takes their focus away, and they also feel intimidated by Troy and Gabby, leading to a series of black-mailings (kind of) that don't really do anything except clearly define how how this social structure works.
The real threat doesn't come until partway through when the math nerds and the basketball guys form a fiendish plan to separate Gabby and Troy. This leads to the second worst song ever written by a human, but in the end is pointless and easily solved. This film has really weak conflicts but the main villains of the story aren't the main villains. Society is. The films meta-narrative is one of acceptance of homosexuality, or really any persecuted group, if you look at it through the right lens. So if somebody ever says "That film is gay!" they're actually kind of on to something.
The point that I'm trying to make is that Sharpay is actually this film's focus, chronicling the futile attempts of homophobic groups (or any prejudiced communities for that matter) to get people to straighten out and eventually being overthrown only to do the exact same thing in the sequel. Yes this film might be sloppily written, and the conflict doesn't make any sense, but through some fluke of probably accidental symbolism this film is actually kind of genius.
BUT THAT ASIDE it still just isn't a good movie technically. That's literally the only thing interesting about it! It's boringly shot, boringly acted, and boring! You know what's about to happen %99.99 of the time. It's the hand sanitizer of TV movies.
So the way the film ends is a big stupid climax organized by team rocket where everything is happening at the same time and they need to pull some pretty elaborate crap off to get to the call back audition, but long story short the film ends with the worst song written by a sentient creature that I have come across.
Wait, what are you doing? No, don't play it! PLEASE DON'T PLAY IT!
YOU MANIAC! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
It's like if Randy Newman started writing for The Wiggles!
Get it out of my head! Get it out of my head!
AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
So, in conclusion, yes it is a pretty bad movie. No, it's a really bad movie, I don't recommend this movie to you. Though it was a pretty bold move of the script to be written the way it was, the film is otherwise structurally bland and the musical part of the title is often horrendous and played for American POW's by the Taliban as a form of torture.
Again, this isn't a terrible movie! It is really very good in some miscellaneous respects, but as a viewing experience, you will find it enjoyably sloppy or painfully bad depending on you as a person.
It's like if Randy Newman started writing for The Wiggles!
Get it out of my head! Get it out of my head!
AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
So, in conclusion, yes it is a pretty bad movie. No, it's a really bad movie, I don't recommend this movie to you. Though it was a pretty bold move of the script to be written the way it was, the film is otherwise structurally bland and the musical part of the title is often horrendous and played for American POW's by the Taliban as a form of torture.
Again, this isn't a terrible movie! It is really very good in some miscellaneous respects, but as a viewing experience, you will find it enjoyably sloppy or painfully bad depending on you as a person.