Back in the mid to late 2000's Disney struck gold with High School Musical so much so that they would try to rip it off with the lesser known but still very successful Camp Rock and while High School Musical would be come this mega franchise that is still going strong. Camp Rock only managed to spawn one sequel that was until today as the much anticipated third film has just been released first on Disney Channel as a Disney Channel Original Movie and then on Disney+ and well I just had to check this film the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I give you my SPOILERR FILLED review of the film that proves that Maria Canals-Barrera holds the secrets to the fountain of youth with the film in question being called simply just "Camp Rock 3" enjoy.
The plot of this film is hen there opening act cancels on them at the last minuet the members of Connect 3 decide to hold a three day contest at the camp to decide who there new opening act will be. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this film still very much being a Disney Channel Original Movie this films plot is about as good as it gets when it comes to those as alot of them do have very cut and dry obvious plots where you know right away what's going to happen next. With this film being of no exception and while this is by no means a bad thing as it does make the film feel more like a throwback to films like The Cheetah Girls 2 or even the first Camp Rock but at the same time we have gotten better films since then and have had more plots where we didn't know where it was going like for example the last two Decendents movies with this films plot feeling like it would been better served if the film was made in say 2010 rather then in 2026 and while the films plot does have some good things going for it like the idea of the band hosting a competition to find there new opening act which is a good idea it's also one that is left feeling more like an afterthought to all of the things that the film gives alot more of it's focus and attention to as the film does oddly enough not give it's main plot alot of focus with it giving it's many side plots more focus when they really didn't need it with this films plot being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Liamani Segura as Sage Scott , Malachi Barton as Fletch Robinson and Lumi Pollack as Rosie Kleinman. Also starring in this film is Hudson Stone as Desi Scott , Casey Trotter as Cliff Carmichael , Brooklynn Pitts as Callie Banks , Ava Jean as Madison , Milo Manheim as Calvin Rhodes , Maria Canals-Barrera as Connie Torres , Sherry Cola as Lark , Ella Lucas as Danielle , Orlando Lucas as Daniel one of this films executive producers Kevin Jonas as Jason Gray , one of this films executive producers , Joe Jonas as Shane Gray and one of this films executive producers Nick Jonas as Nate Gray.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Much like with alot of the things in this film you do have to take into account that this is a Disney Channel Original Movie when it comes to judging it's quality of acting as alot of them don't have good acting in them and yet this films acting was alot more better then what one would expect from a Disney Channel original Movie with all of the films new actors more then holding there own when it comes to acting opposite the films returning actors. With the best actor in the whole entire film being Liamani Segura as Sage Scott as she just has that IT factor about her where you can have her playing any type of character and she would find a way to make it work with this being something that she does here as on the paper Sage could come across as being this really unlikable person and yet she does find away ti make the character more like her and in the process be this more likable character that you want to know more about and while she is in the very early days of her acting career she could really make a good go of it if she really wanted to as this film does give her a good chance to show her her natural charm and charisma which is something that really does shine through in her performance in this film. With the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Character wise this film does fair about as well as you'd expect given the fact that the Camp Rock films aren't really known for there great characters. As this films characters are as bare bones as you can think of for a Disney Channel Original Movie which quite frankly is fine for one of those films as the Disney Channel Original Movies never really went to far int characters and when they found a character type that worked they just copied and pasted that same character type into several other movies and yeah the same thing is true here as well as none of the films character feel all that original as alot of them do feel like knock offs of oddly enough characters seen in the first two Camp Rock films which is something that be find inf the makers of this film did literally anything interesting with them but that don't. With Sage being someone who is all about rehearsing and practicing her music which some odd reason is seen as being a bad thing even tho she wants to be a singer whereas her brother Desi is more about living in the moment and that's great but Disney Channel literally had a TV show with that exact same character set up called Austin & Ally with the rest of the films characters not really being all that good either with the Connect 3 members being both the best and worst of the bunch they are the best in that they are written as they were in the original film but there the worst in that they do nothing interesting in the film even Connie who is no promoted to Camp Director doesn't get to show off why we liked her all that much in the first two films, all of the films characters do feel like first draft characters as there isn't all that much to them with the makers of the film relying more on nostalgia for the first two films to carry it's returning characters and not doing anything interesting with it's new characters to where we ant to see more of them in future Camp Rock films.
SPOILER START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just to be clear here up until a few short days ago this revie was going to be a SPOILER FREE but then something got confirmed and well it is true as for the first time in almost twenty years we have one of this films executive producers Demi Lovato back as Mitchie Torres. This is a big thing for two reasons the first of which being the fact that she was the main character of the first two films and them doing a third film without her in it in someway shape or form just wouldn't feel right somehow and the second of which being the fact that this is the first time the Demi has worked with Disney on anything for almost twenty years as she has been very much still in the public eye for better or for worse since then and she does look really good in this film. The character does only appear in what is basically both a cameo role and a passing of the torch type of role at the end of the film where she does have a few scenes with all of the returning actors from the first two films and she does have a passing of torch moment with Sage where the two of the exchange glances with each other near the end of the film, but the character does get mentioned twice before then when Sage finds her songbook and does find inspiration in it before returning it to Connie which was pretty sweet as it does give all three characters this unspoken connection thus making the passing of the torch moment mean a little bit more but it still would have been nice if we did get to see more of Mitchie like maybe she could have taken part in the end song or even having her appearing in the end credits video would have been nice and nice tip of the hat to the fans of the first two films but in all fairness Demi might not have been ready to commit to doing a minor role in the film as she is still a busy woman in her own right and does still have her own demons to over come.
Much like with the first two films this film does also have a romance subplot however unlike with the first two films where the romance was actually cute and enduring. The same thing cannot be said for this films romance it's not badly written or anything but its due to the fact that the characters of Sage and Fletch feel like there being forced together as none of them bring out anything better in the other with them both bringing out the exact same things that all of the other campers bring out in each other and while the characters do indeed share alot of screen time together none of the scenes that they have together or romantic scenes with them nine times out of ten being with there friends or the friends are just off screen somewhere. Yet if I were t compare this to the romance in either the original film or Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam the romance plots in those films where done so much more better as they did feature couples that did bring out the best in each other with the couples even having scenes together away from there friend groups with them being able to get as romantic as they could have done in a Disney Channel Original Movie and yet here in this film it does feel like the makers of this film didn't really know how to make a romance work as while it does tie into the plot in a small way which was nice to see there's nothing in Fletch's and Sage's character that would make them seem like a good fit for each other as there's nothing to there characters to begin and if the makers of this film really wanted to make these character a believable romance then there should have been some of level of effort put into making good in the first place as while the actors do there best to make it work they can only do so much and the makers of this film really did need to give the romance more thought and effort to make it work in the film.
This film is of course a musical film with the sings written by Matthew Tishler , Shridhar Solanki , Mitch Allan and Kara DioGuardi. The film does feature several new songs with the film mixing the approaches taken t the by the first two films as have of the songs are sung by the characters performing them live and the other half or done in the traditional musical way where a character would just randomly breakout into song which in all fairness is a good way to do the songs as while it would have been better if they just went with the way that the first film did there songs where the songs where sung as actual songs the characters were singing taking a mixed approach does have it's advantages as well as it does allow for the makers of the film to really go crazy with the visuals and just have fun with it which is something that they do quite easily in this film. With the best song in the film being "One Beat Away" which might have been the obvious choice as that is the first song that Disney released to help to promote the film but it is a good song with the song having this punk pop rock vibe to it that does remind you of some of the songs in the first film with the song it self being really well sung but alot of the new actors in this film, with the film even having some covers of the first films songs with "We Rock" , "Play My Music" , "Start the Party" and "What It Takes" all getting covered in some small way in this film with the worst one oddly enough being "We Rock" as even tho the films soundtrack has it being listed as being well over two minuets and forty seconds in the film they only play about thirty seconds of it with us getting some bad singing from all involved in those thirty seconds whereas if they did play the full length version of it then it might have been alot more better but with "One More Beat" they nailed it right away as it does as a good and fun song to introduce some of the main characters whilst being really well sung on the whole.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty minuets and twenty one seconds. Which is pretty much the exact running time that you'd expect one of these films to have and to be fair to this film the film does kind of need to have that long of a running time as the film essentially has three plots all going on at the same time with there of course being the main plot , the there's the romance subplot and then there's the plot of Connect 3 learning to reconnect again and while the third plot does et resolved OFF SCREEN which makes it pointless as it would have given the brothers something to do in the film the film does need this amount of running tm to do all of those plots some kind of justice with the film having more the enough plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet despite the film being as long as it is this film really doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the film has so many other plots to cram into it's short running time that it does start to feel over stuffed whereas if the film lost say the romance subplot as that adds nothing to the plot of the film in the first place then it would have freed up time to give any of the films other plots some much needed development but the makers of this film cared amount about giving us some pretty bad versions of classic Camp Rock songs then they did in giving the plot some actual development. This is also true for the film character development as none of the films characters get any kind of character development to begin with this is despite the fact that all of the five main characters all take part in this amazing bus scene where they all tell each other what being at camp really means to them and how its changed them with them all vowing to remain friends regardless of who wins this competition but none of it means anything as the films characters really are so poorly done in the first place with the makers of this film care more about giving us nostalgia for the first two films then in giving us character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With there being alot of the kinds of jokes that you would expect one of these Disney Channel Original Movies to have but then every once in a while you will get a joke that whilst it's not the smartest joke in the world is a pretty decent joke as it does ether play into where the older characters are now or where the newer characters are as well which is a pretty fun thing to do but the film also oddly enough doesn't give the actor who can do comedy and has done alot of comedy in Maria Canals-Barrera as she gets no jokes in the film yet she's the only one that we know from other comedies can be funny. With the best joke being early on in the film where Shane and Nate accuse a now parent Jason of never being ready to rock with him turning around with a baby strapped to his chest still being adamant that he is always ready to rock and that is a pretty good joke as it does play into the fact that Jason was always the dimwitted one of the group and therefor he would of course do something like this as that does feel true to who his character both was and still is with that joke proving that the makers of this film can do a decent joke if they can be bothered to do so and yet nine times out of ten in this film it does feel like they couldn't be bothered to do so with the rest of the films jokes being just as decent as well im my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall not only is camp back in session but so is the mid to late two thousands Disney Channel era as we've had or are getting continuations or specials of movies and shows that were from that same time period with this film proving that you do need more then nostalgia to make a really good film despite the fact that this film is still a pretty decent film in it's own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now the as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.