Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam

Not as good as the first movie but still a classic

This movie has great potential but unfortunately fell flat. Theres a couple of good songs - fire and rain is iconic, we cant back down goes hard, introducing me is classic - but a lot of the songs fall flat, especially as we get towards the end. The final competition songs were kinda boring, but i liked that camp rock lost, and i absolutely adore the reveal being through slow motion reaction shots with no dialogue. Genuinely great cinematic choice. I think unfortunately the ending with camp rock being saved kinda made the whole competition aspect feel pointless.

We have here a musical film with an overproduced soundtrack, whose story is about _\*checks notes\*_ Camp Rock's rivalry with an "overproduced ego factory" across the lake.

Ha. Irony. Again.

At least this time the story's better overall. Plenty of "why'd they _do_ that?!" to go around still, in both the musical arrangements and story choices for various characters—especially the method by which [spoiler]Connect 3's bus wound up waterlogged… there were still two intact axles on that side[/spoiler]!

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Surely there were more musical nods than what I caught, but:

* Nate's solo [spoiler]to Dana[/spoiler] is absolutely a pseudo-clone of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" in style
* Camp Star's final number starts off with an intro undeniably similar to EXO's "Growl" (으르렁)

This being a Disney production, it's even odds whether they intentionally cloned popular tracks, and also even odds whether they licensed anything or banked on the Mouse's sheer size to deter litigation.