Camp Sorta Rock

After the huge success of High School Musical, Disney began searching for another franchise that would parallel that phenomenon. And, on paper, Camp Rock fits the bill. You've got the musical element. Everyone loves movies set at camps. And they cast hit 'Tween band The Jonas Brothers in the movie. How could it miss? By not having a compelling enough story.

Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato) is a high school student who writes her own songs. Her dream is to spend her summer at Camp Rock, a summer camp for musicians of all stripes. Things don't look good until her mother (Maria Canals-Barrera) lands a job as the camp cook. True, Mitchie has to help out around the kitchen, but she'll still get to attend most of the functions.

On the first day, she sees Tess Tyler (Meaghan Jette Martin), the daughter of multi-Grammy award winning pop artist TJ Tyler. Tyler is the most popular girl at camp, and in an effort to impress her, she lies about her mother's job.

Meanwhile, Mitchie also meets Shane Gray (Joe Jonas), the difficult member of the group Connect 3 (the other two members of the group are played by Kevin and Nick Jonas). Shane has been roped into teaching at the camp to rehabilitate his image. Mitchie makes an impression on him. But what will happen when her lies become common knowledge?

Now don't get me wrong, there are several things that work well here. The music is pretty good. It ranges from pop to rock and hip hop. Okay, so I'm not a fan of hip hop, but that's just a personal preference. All the songs are either performances at the camp or "songs in progress" that one character sings to another to get feed back. That would almost get rid of the biggest complaint about musicals (everyone breaking out into song) except for one thing. Even the "song in progress" songs are overproduced with multiple instruments and backup singers. Logical? No. But hey, it is a musical, so I'll let it slide.

The acting is good here. It can be a bit over the top at times, but it fits those scenes. There was absolutely nothing about any of the performances that pulled me out of the movie. The exception to that is Julie Brown as Dee La Duke. She is so over the top is drives me crazy. Fortunately, the camp activity coordinator isn't around for too much of the film, so again it is a minor issue.

But here's my main issue with the movie. The story just doesn't work for me. It's probably because I am too independent, but watching Mitchie lie time and time again to impress such an obviously self-absorbed, shallow girl just didn't work for me. I guess I can see the initial fascination, but after a few days, I would have been out of there. Especially since there were other kids who were treating Mitchie much better. I'm probably being overly optimistic of myself and others since several other characters couldn't see through Tess either.

Adding to the problem is a climax that is so rushed it ignores some key issues the characters had with each other. I mean, suddenly everything is forgiven so we can have a happy ending? Now, I am all for a happy ending. But at least let us see the characters talk to each other instead of just singing on stage.

Rumor has it that Disney is already working on a sequel to Camp Rock. Despite my objections, there is still hope for this to become a decent series. I hope they give some thought to the script next time so that the plot works better.