I was a big fan of the first High School Musical. It wasn't the best thing in the world, but the music was, if nothing else, fun and so was the movie.<br /><br />I give Disney points for the music. I know many didn't like the music in this installment at all, but I personally found it better than the first. However, the music is different this time around- more to my taste and less to others. It all depends on your taste in music.<br /><br />The movie itself- Disney tried far too hard. I think I got that idea when I saw Sharpay's musical number with the pink piano in the swimming pool. Any character development at all (which lets face it, wasn't a lot) that was made in the first movie was completely undermined. Sharpay wasn't an airhead, she was just self-centered. She's both in this movie. Gabriella was a sweet, optimistic, intelligent girl. They made her bubbly beyond reason. The only person that really had any real character development was Ryan. I give them points for the character development of Ryan.<br /><br />The story gave a whole new meaning to the word cliché. And there were several moments that the story just doesn't make sense at all. When or why did Gabriella decide to go back to Troy? We don't know! We don't see her or hear from her at all between her little "goodbye" number and the talent show! We're just left to assume that she found out that Troy's made this overnight (literally) change from super-jerk to team player again. It makes no cinematic sense. And neither did the placing of most songs. Instead of "I think I hear a song coming on", the audiences should have been thinking. "Where the heck did THAT song come from?" <br /><br />I'm not even going to elaborate on how Troy's "angst on a golf course" song and 'dance' looked like an over-dramatic bad music video of nothing but drama poses. And we didn't need another movie to watch Ashley Tisdale dance around in her bathing suits/Paris Hilton-esquire dresses and to watch Zac Efron take off his shirt. Yay for added fan-service? (please note the heavy sarcasm). <br /><br />The title "High School Musical" makes no sense when applied to this movie. This movie is not about high school. Nor is it about a musical. It's a mishmash of over-the-top acting interrupted by random songs. Long story short. The music was better. The movie was FAR worse.