I came into this movie expecting a low-quality high-school-music-imitation like the last movie but I was pleasantly surprised.
The choreography experienced a major improvement. While High School Musical showed up Teen Beach Movie in it's choreography intricacy Teen Beach Movie 2 matched it. Ross Lynch stepped up his dancing too - seen in the school dance off - he must have worked his butt of for that quadruple pirouette and barrel turn. It was a little cheesy at points - the frown/smile song - but I think they made it clear in this movie they weren't taking themselves too seriously.
The humour in the movie flowed better then the first movie - or at least for me it did. I actually found myself laughing out loud at this movie compared to the eye rolls I experienced during the first movie.
I feel like the content dealt with in the second movie was also more mature then the first movie - excluding the ending. The characters had to deal with greater sacrifice then simply friendship, they had to deal with coming to the reality of teenage relationships and most importantly independence. Seeing Lela so excited to be able to follow her dreams and "do anything even if you're a girl" was really great to see. Women being treated like damsels and simply objects of romance in old musicals was a real problem so this movie subtly calls that out with Lela's pursuit of happiness. I remember how angry I was that Mack gave up her schooling opportunity to surf with Brady in the first - considering how intelligent Mack is supposed to be - so seeing this new focus on independence was awesome.
I see a lot of reviews claiming the 60s and 70s vibes are gone in this movie, as if it's a bad thing. I thought it was pretty clear that was on purpose. They did that old vibe for the first movie and did modern for the second as to not recreate the first movie but still keep the characters alive. I really appreciated this because I don't know if I could handle another surfer-vibe movie because I, along with the thousands of other kids watching it, don't have that nostalgia towards surfer movies. So by having this movie less surf-ery it gives the audience something they're familiar with while still relating it to the classic movie.
Now some bad things. Of course the whole forgetting each other because they met in the movie spin made little to no sense so that was a major downfall of the movie. I also wish they hadn't added the concept of the disappearing movie but I understand why they wanted to keep the idea that each world balances off each other so they can't intermingle or something along those lines. It was also strange how Mack said that Lela could do all these things such as start a math club in the movie world yet it seems plausible that the movie world is confined to only the locations and resources contained in the movie, making some things impossible and being trapped in a confined world unbearable for Lela. But that's probably a little nit picky.
I would recommend it if you're in for a silly, light movie to lift your spirits. Just don't come into it expecting a seamless homage to your favourite 60s musical because that's not what this is. Just enjoy it and don't be a grumpy parent about it either, please.
The choreography experienced a major improvement. While High School Musical showed up Teen Beach Movie in it's choreography intricacy Teen Beach Movie 2 matched it. Ross Lynch stepped up his dancing too - seen in the school dance off - he must have worked his butt of for that quadruple pirouette and barrel turn. It was a little cheesy at points - the frown/smile song - but I think they made it clear in this movie they weren't taking themselves too seriously.
The humour in the movie flowed better then the first movie - or at least for me it did. I actually found myself laughing out loud at this movie compared to the eye rolls I experienced during the first movie.
I feel like the content dealt with in the second movie was also more mature then the first movie - excluding the ending. The characters had to deal with greater sacrifice then simply friendship, they had to deal with coming to the reality of teenage relationships and most importantly independence. Seeing Lela so excited to be able to follow her dreams and "do anything even if you're a girl" was really great to see. Women being treated like damsels and simply objects of romance in old musicals was a real problem so this movie subtly calls that out with Lela's pursuit of happiness. I remember how angry I was that Mack gave up her schooling opportunity to surf with Brady in the first - considering how intelligent Mack is supposed to be - so seeing this new focus on independence was awesome.
I see a lot of reviews claiming the 60s and 70s vibes are gone in this movie, as if it's a bad thing. I thought it was pretty clear that was on purpose. They did that old vibe for the first movie and did modern for the second as to not recreate the first movie but still keep the characters alive. I really appreciated this because I don't know if I could handle another surfer-vibe movie because I, along with the thousands of other kids watching it, don't have that nostalgia towards surfer movies. So by having this movie less surf-ery it gives the audience something they're familiar with while still relating it to the classic movie.
Now some bad things. Of course the whole forgetting each other because they met in the movie spin made little to no sense so that was a major downfall of the movie. I also wish they hadn't added the concept of the disappearing movie but I understand why they wanted to keep the idea that each world balances off each other so they can't intermingle or something along those lines. It was also strange how Mack said that Lela could do all these things such as start a math club in the movie world yet it seems plausible that the movie world is confined to only the locations and resources contained in the movie, making some things impossible and being trapped in a confined world unbearable for Lela. But that's probably a little nit picky.
I would recommend it if you're in for a silly, light movie to lift your spirits. Just don't come into it expecting a seamless homage to your favourite 60s musical because that's not what this is. Just enjoy it and don't be a grumpy parent about it either, please.