Camp Rock Review

It was supposedly going to be “The Next High School Musical.” Its soundtrack was supposed to be superb, adding to the Disney goldmine. It was the newest Disney Channel original movie, Camp Rock and it, well, rocked.

The message boards all over various websites are buzzing. Directly after the movie, I went to iTunes to buy four of the original songs (which I’m listening to now.) Camp Rock was really fun to watch. Although getting some negative reviews, a second Camp Rock is rumored to be in the works.

The movie centers around Mitchie (Demi Lovato - said to be the next Miley Cyrus), an aspiring singer who gets invited to a summer music camp. Mitchie’s parents can’t afford it, but her mother (Maria Canals-Barrera) lands the job as the cook. Mitchie is ashamed of the lack of money and lies about how rich she is to impress the Sharpay Evans of the Camp, Tess (Meaghan Jette Martin) leaving her real friend, Caitlyn (Alyson Stoner), out in the cold.

Teaching at the camp is the self-centered, bad-tempered rock star Shane Gray (Joe Jonas). Shane was sent there by his band mates, Nate and Jason (Nick and Kevin Jonas). Shane is obsessed with finding this mystery woman, whose voice he heard that reminded him why he loves music.

The music is excellent. If it weren’t, would I have bought some of the soundtrack? My favorite is “This is Me,” by Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato. The track is absolutely amazing and I probably have listened to it ten times in the past hour. I also bought “Play My Music,” which has been stuck in my head for the last two hours. It is the Jonas Brothers’ song.

“Gotta Find You,” by Joe Jonas, is amazing as well - very poetic and very beautiful. Joe really has a great voice. “We Rock” is the full-cast power song, and turned out to be quite valuable as well.

The acting is great, of course, and Demi is incredible. There is a scene where she is near tears and Joe’s character screams at her and their chemistry is absolutely miraculous. I don’t remember the last time I saw such on-screen chemistry. The pair is adorable together. Both are incredibly talented and Disney is blessed to have them.

Actually, all the Jonas Brothers are good actors, which I was quite worried about. They can sing, but can they act? They definitely can. Meaghan did a terrific job as the mean girl, although the character is getting a bit old. Alyson played the nice best friend well. I wasn’t a huge fan of hers before the movie, but I really like her now. I like Maria a lot. She is also the mother of the Russo sibling in Wizards of Waverly Place, staring Selena Gomez.

One thing I didn’t like was how little they had Kevin and Nick Jonas in it. Supposedly, they weren’t originally in the movie ad were put in specifically for Kevin and Nick. Still, I loved their characters. Kevin had this really dumb character who complained throughout the movie that he wanted Joe’s character to build him a birdhouse (which he never did.) He was a little out there, but I loved Kevin’s character. He was hilarious. Nick’s character was awesome too, and I am very impressed by his acting. I was under the impression that their characters would be bigger.

Some people might say that this movie is just a High School Musical rip-off, but it really wasn’t. The major similarities was Meagan’s character trying to be Ashley Tisdale’s Sharpay Evans from High School Musical, and it’s a Disney musical movie. It had much more variety in its music (Hip hop, rock, pop, and R&B). If it ripped off anything, it’s Raise Your Voice, starring Hilary Duff. These two movies have very similar plots. However, I really did like this movie. If it had Corbin Bleu in it, I think it would have been better than High School Musical in my book.