174 - Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam

    Another summer at Camp Rock, the same cast returns, but this time, there’s an evil competing camp that has opened across the lake.
    My intention was to outline this movie the way I outlined the first movie.  I got about 20 minutes into that process before I gave up.  This movie isn’t worth outlining.
    I found myself cringing a lot more than I did during the first movie.  Both of them have a similar obviousness that informs the structure, but this one fails in a few regards.  I know that most sequels need to ramp up the stakes.  And they do that, but at the same time, it means that they spend less time on the more personal elements of the story.  So the lesson that the lead learns is trivial, and she doesn’t really have to suffer to learn it.
    They try to compensate for this by giving most of the supporting cast miniature lessons to learn.  Some of these are charming, but mostly because they aren’t being taken as seriously.
    There’s the usual Disney schmaltz that drips off of everything.
    The music is actually a big step down.  There’s more of a hip-hop element that takes over a few songs.  The production is bigger and less organic sounding.  There were a few songs that were notable in different ways.  The writing for one of them was fairly tricky, balancing two perspectives into a single song.  The one that stood out was Introducing Me, which has a strong melody (even if it borrows from another song) and some much more clever wordplay.
    The thing that really bothered me was how much more effort was put into choreographing elaborate dance sequences for songs.  Some of these got really distracting, because it was shot more like a music video - the lead was singing in more than one place at a time.
    Which brings me back to her voice.  I still don’t like it.  There’s a push toward outrageously “soulful” singing, which doesn’t have any soulfulness in it.
    The shift that happened with this movie - moving the plot toward something bigger, and away from personal development - hurt the emotional impact the movie could have had.  While we all know that there was going to be a happy ending, I found myself disappointed, since about 20 minutes in, I thought of an ending that would have been much more satisfying.  Why don’t the camps join forces?  Maybe since it would require the adults to be more responsible.  This could be addressed by making it so that the campers inspire the adults, and that’s what brings everyone together.