Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam
I
know that at the end of Camp Rock, you were left with an incomplete
feeling and gnawing curiosity – what in heaven’s name happened to everyone?
After a young poor girl has accomplished all of her dreams of love and
artistic success, what will she do for an encore?
Okay, okay, so Camp Rock 2 is not so much telling a story that was
begging to be told, however the first Camp Rock was a huge hit so it
was rather inevitable that the old gang would be rounded up for another year
on the bunks and canoes and stages of this rock’n’roll (well okay, bubblegum
pop) summer camp.
Of
course, as I said earlier, they pretty much told the story that they had to
tell the first time around, so what now?
Essentially more of the same old stuff, though they have added an evil rival
singing camp to the mix in an attempt to drum up a little conflict. And
this time around, the two less cute Jonas Brothers actually get more than a
couple of scenes. Oh yeah, and it seems that Julie Brown (“The Homecoming
Queen Has a Gun”) the co-creator, co-writer and supporting actress as a
counselor of the first film, has apparently been given her walking papers.
The
film takes place the very next summer (though the movie is actually two
years old at this point) where all of the kids from the first film return to
the scene of their “best summer” looking for love and music and fun in the
sun.
No
one is going into Camp Rock 2 looking for innovation or revelation,
so again this is essentially the story of a cute-as-a-button normal girl
named Mitchie (played by Disney princess Demi Lovato, who has perhaps the
whitest, straightest teeth I have ever seen) who achieves her dreams of pop
stardom and winning the heart of the dreamy boy band singer (Joe Jonas!!!
Sigh…). Hey, Mitchie even gets to be an inspirational camp counselor this
time around.
Mitchie – you truly are queen for a summer.
After all, this is a Disney Channel production, which means you are going to
have beautiful (and ethnically diverse) teens, sharp-tongued youngsters,
extensively choreographed singing & dancing numbers and sweet, chaste
romance which pretty much peaks at singing together, kissing briefly and
holding hands by a bonfire.
Strangely, though, Camp Rock 2 has lost a little bit of the
original's spark simply because it is trying so hard to be bigger. For
all of the ridiculously overblown musical numbers in the original, the story
felt strangely intimate. Here, by adding a sing-off with a new rival
camp which even in the story has hugely deep pockets (the place looks more
like an industrial compound than a camp) and lots and lots of pyrotechnics,
the movie loses the slight personal feel that even the original kind of
grasped.
This
attempt to add big, useless gestures to the mix is shown early on when the
Jonas Brothers' empty tour bus crashes off a cliff and sinks in the ocean.
Why? It doesn't change the story line, really. It's not even a
particularly funny set piece. It's just needless effects - as if the
filmmakers are afraid that they won't be able to keep their audience's
attention without lots of huge stunts and productions.
The
story - well what of a story there is here - has the former rival of Camp
Rock's owner opening a music boot camp called Camp Star across the lake from
our heroes' camp. The owner of Camp Star is a huge music exec with
unlimited funds and an apparent bottomless pit of spite against his former
friend. He vows that he will destroy Camp Rock.
It
seems kind of odd that this hissible bad guy would take three months off
from running a multi-national conglomerate, spend millions of dollars and
all of his time just to show up a long ago rival. Axel, baby, you are worth
30 times more than Brown. You have already won, my man.
However, you may have more money, but Brown has the
respect. Therefore, the Camp Rock kids band
together to save their camp by having a big sing-off against Camp Star - a
local camp singing competition which somehow has become a huge internet
event.
Strangely, no one ever takes into account that Camp Rock would seem to have
a huge advantage because they have three pop superstars
as part of their group. Even stranger, the Camp
Rock singers do not seem to have gotten more popularity in the voting
despite this obvious advantage.
Meantime, Mitchie's working so hard trying to save the camp that her pop
star boyfriend is feeling ignored. Meanwhile, another one of the Jonas
boys has a Romeo & Juliet-esque shy romance with the daughter of the
other camp owner.
The Jonases don't sing all that much
here, surprisingly. They do one or two songs by themselves, Joe does
some duets with Demi and one of the other interchangeable brothers does a
goofy serenade - but musically this is much more of a showcase for Demi
Lovato, who gets several songs.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2010 PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Posted: September 12, 2010.
