High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

So, my theory about the High School Musical movies is that as the song-and-dance sequences get better, the plot gets worse. This has one of the stupidest plots I've ever seen. Loose ends are left hanging awkwardly, characters jump in and out of their personalities as the situation demands, and nothing really seems to make sense. But this has by far the most imaginative choreography and the most interesting songs. Although "The Boys Are Back" had absolutely zero relevance to the plot and was surrounded by terrible dialogue, it was a superb musical moment that far surpasses anything the HSM franchise has done thus far. My mother commented as she watched it that it reminded her of Newsies, and it's true, it was nearly at that level of awesomeness. The first movie had a predictable-but-fine plot and decent music. The second had more entertaining music but a lamer plot. I suspect HSM3 gave their entire budget to the songwriters and choreographers and wrote the script by asking every cast and crew member to write a page of dialogue and pass it on. It's a great nostalgic end (I hope-- it's about run its course) to the series, and a great series of music videos, but a lousy movie. It gets 3.5 stars for its musical numbers... otherwise it'd have gotten MAYBE one star. 3.5 stars.