Camp Rock 2 The Final Jam: Review


Ironic really how things have played out since the last Camp Rock review. Not only am I now part of the over unoriginal failing corporation that is Disney..... I actually thought this movie was good.
Now before you start saying I've sold out because Disney is paying me, let me say that I went into this movie with every intention of writing a bad review about it. But if a movie has focus, character development, story flow and a few okay songs, how can I say it's bad just because I wanted it to be bad. For a movie with The Jonas Brothers in it, Camp Rock 2 was surprisingly entertaining.
Camp Rock 2 is still pretty much High School Musical if the cast of Glee moved into the school next to them. A new camp called Camp Star filled with fake ass over-produced singers has opened on the opposite site of Camp Rock's lake and is threatening it's business. So Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers challenges the stars of Camp Star to a final showdown on live TV to decide which camp will earn it's sole place on the lake. And if you are relying on the Jonas Brothers to win a talent contest for you..... you know your in deep shit.
Camp Rock 2 does so much better than it's predecessor because the writers finally gave the audience a clear and threatening villain. This is a battle movie. It's an us versus them movie. Simple, focused, clear and we actually care. In the last movie, the real threat was, "Oh, the campers are gonna find out I'm a poor girl. Oh I will be like so embarrassed." And it does help when the Camp Star singers are no-talent, big ego douchebags.
And being a kids movie, Camp Rock 2 does present a very nice theme of raw talent vs Hollywood. The film deals a lot with over consumerism, smothering promotion and overrated talent which really surprised me to find all of these being talked about by Disney of all people. Ironic. It's like a drug dealer telling kids not to do coke.
And another thing that Disney has done better in this is that we actually have real character development. They took all the supporting actors from the last film and gave them one specific area of talent and they are immediately transformed from talking extras to identifiable characters. Every one of the minor roles are memorable because they had something that made them stand out. And the one who stood out the most was Nick Jonas.
Nick Jonas has finally proven what I have been saying all this while that he is the most talented out of the Jonas Brothers and needs to get as far away as he humanly can from his two blood sucking brothers. While everyone else was being all we must defeat them Camp Star, Jonas actually managed to pull of a very convincing Pocahontas romance side story with another girl character from Camp Star. He is by no means a good actor but this guy has a natural personality that is leading role material. I'd love to see him do an anti hero character next time like Rebel Without A Cause because he has that quality. Plus the little fucker can sing.
But the blarring bullshit that kept pissing me off about this is the fucking music. The film at it's simplest pits rock music against pop music. Which would be nice if the producers understood what the fuck rock music is. If this was trully sincerely Camp Rock, Demi Lovato would be Hailey Williams, the Jonas Brothers would be Muse, the campers would be the cast of American Idiot and the camp would be run by Mick Jagger.
We have these characters go on and on about how much better and pure the spirit of rock and roll is but they are singing Hannah Montana-esque crap music. Don't get me wrong, these people are good singers, but they aren't the type's of singers you'd have for "Camp Rock." And if you thought the lip syncing in Glee was bad, ZOMG was it terrible here.
So.. better than what Disney's been making so far. Not about to throw a parade celebrating this though. I'll probably forget all about this in a week.

RATING: 6/10

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