This evening, I completed watching High School Musical 3: Senior Year. My thought process went something like, "Well, I saw the first one that they made and that was kind of rough. But I'm sure they've gotten better since they've made three of them now." Also, "It has the word musical in the title. What could go wrong?" As usual, I talked myself into underestimating the complete pointlessness of anything relating to high school.
Let me interrupt myself by saying that the whole premise of musicals is bad enough. In this perfect environment that musicals paint as normal, you as a normal human will consistently be overcome by such emotion every 7-10 minutes that you will be required to burst forth into song. The songs you will sing will be ones that you've never heard and that you make up on the spot. You will most likely be joined by a potpourri of your friends, random passing strangers, and the ice cream man (or a chimney sweep). They too will happen to know the song you are singing and will join you in your song (unless you are doing a sad solo). The song will end with everyone singing at the top of their lungs, the band/orchestra finishing with a climactic "ta-da," and all your new-found friends continuing about their daily lives as if nothing took place that was out of the ordinary.
Like I said, that's bad enough. But to create a musical about high school in which the characters create a musical about high school and then end by graduating high school and singing about the musical they made about high school - that just takes the cake. Now I realize that the entire production is aimed at a specific age group (just a guess...high school), but can't we at least throw in a couple of songs for anyone who's not interested in basketball R&B or hormonally charged teen love songs?
On top of that, I haven't even mentioned the one thing that got me started on this rant. It was the lyrics to the last song in the show. They go something, but only something, like this:
High School Musical
Who says we have to let it go?
It's the best part we've ever known
Step into the future
We'll hold onto High School Musical
Let's celebrate where we came from
With friends who've been there all along
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah, baby! You know I only talk to two people from high school on any sort of regular basis? That's what gets me. They make high school out to be this be all end all of your life. You may do other cool things, but high school is cooler than anything and you'll have it with you until you die or get Alzheimers and maybe even after that. Who knows???
I, on the other hand, prefer to forget high school (where I was, like most other kids my age, a hormonally charged, wacky, imbalanced, grade A dork) and think about more positive things like the time I got my head on straight and asked my wife to marry me (and other semi-mature things I've done since then).
Thank you. I appreciate you letting me rant. And by the way, please hold your applause...High School Musical 4 is on the way. Here's a peek for those of you who aren't in the know.
