Originals have to stay originals. You can’t touch the classics.
As someone who grew up with Camp Rock, I really wanted to like this. I went into it thinking, “Okay, this could actually be good.” Unfortunately, I was wrong. I felt rushed watching it, and there was basically no character development. To be honest, I didn’t really care about any of the characters because I never had enough time to understand them or connect with them.
And the storyline? What storyline? I swear there barely was one.
The problem is, Camp Rock 3 seems to think bringing back the name, the songs and a few familiar faces is enough to make a good Camp Rock movie. It isn’t.
This is honestly why I think Disney Channel is decreasing. The writing needs fresh blood. They need people with new ideas because some of the writing was so poor that I genuinely think Disney needs to call me up so I can give them some new ideas.
For example, why couldn’t we have had Mitchie’s cousin, or Shane’s son or daughter, come to Camp Rock? You could have had a little bit of Parent Trap vibes while still keeping the Camp Rock feeling from the original movies. Imagine having a new generation of characters with an actual connection to Mitchie or Shane. Suddenly, you have family drama, history and an actual reason for the audience to care. Was that really so hard?
Everything also happened so quickly. Characters met, became friends, fell in love and solved their problems before I even had time to understand who they were. There was no time for anything to develop naturally.
And then we have Sage and Fletch.
Desi and Sage, who were brother and sister, had more chemistry than Sage and her actual love interest Fletch (Malachi). The romance scenes honestly made me cringe. There was no build-up, no proper conflict and nothing that made me root for them. It was like they just looked at each other and instantly fell in love. It was basically Amortentia from Harry Potter without even drinking the potion. Like, did they even know each other before deciding they were in love?
Fletch also reminded me of Will Hawkins, the bad boy from A Week Away who is always getting arrested by the police. I understand what they were trying to do with his character, but it just didn’t work for me.
And Cliff? I’m sorry, but they needed to write him out. I understand what they were trying to do with him. He was clearly supposed to be the funny character who brought some comic relief, but he just wasn’t funny. I was waiting for the joke to land and it never did.
Then we have the “mean” group. And I use the word mean very loosely. I was told they were supposed to be the bad guys, but honestly, I was never that bothered by them.
Compare them to Tess from the original Camp Rock. Tess actually felt like a mean girl. She created drama, caused problems and you actually wanted to see her get what was coming to her.
This group? Not so much.
If your villain is making me feel absolutely nothing, you have a problem. They didn’t feel threatening, and there was nothing about them that made me think, “Oh no, what are they going to do?”
And then the songs. Oh, the songs.
The songs were really bad. One of them reminded me of “The Boys Are Back” from High School Musical, and you might be thinking, “Okay, so that must have been a good thing.” No. It was the complete opposite.
The only songs I thought were alright were Rosie’s song in the final jam and Desi and Sage’s number when they reconnected.
The whole movie felt more like a music medley than an actual musical. Where was the dialogue? I swear there barely was any. They would say one sentence and then suddenly boom we’re singing again. At some point, I stopped wondering what was going to happen next and started wondering when the next song was going to end.
A musical still needs a story.
That’s what made the original Camp Rock movies work. Mitchie had insecurities and actually grew as a character. Shane had an attitude and had to change. Mitchie and Shane’s relationship actually developed instead of happening instantly. You had friendships, drama, rivalries and Camp Star. Most importantly, the songs actually helped move the story forward.
Here, it felt like the story was just there to get us from one song to another.
The only thing that really made me smile was seeing the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato back. It brought back some nostalgia, and for a second I was thinking, “Okay, this feels like Camp Rock again.” But even they couldn’t save this movie.
Also, did they get AI to help them write this script? Because that is how bad it was.
Maybe if Camp Rock wasn’t such a big part of my childhood, I wouldn’t be this harsh. But that’s exactly why I am. I know what Camp Rock can be. I know how much fun the original movies were, how much the characters meant to people and how much potential this had.
Instead, we got weak characters, barely any storyline, forced romance, forgettable ‘villains’, cringe songs and almost no character development. They had the chance to bring back something people genuinely loved, and somehow they made it feel like they didn’t understand what made Camp Rock special in the first place.
Camp Rock deserved better and honestly, so did we.
Spot on. I couldn’t have said it any better. Oh yeah, the costumes. Absolutely outrageous. Why were the “mean group” always dressed like they were going to the gym… The only costume that made sense was the brother; he dressed like an actual teenager in a camp. Everyone else’s outfit looked like a H&M/shein collaberation.