Despite the rising stars of several members of the cast, especially Zac Efron, and the personal controversies of a few cast members, especially Vanessa Hudgens, who was an early victim of a widely-publicized nude photo leaks scandal (before we collectively understood and agreed that those whose explicit photos are leaked by hackers are the victims of sexual assault, not complicit instigators), the trilogy capper keeps the whole gang together, both in front of and behind the camera. Efron and Hudgens reappear as stars, with Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, and the rest co-starring. Kenny Ortega, the real mastermind of the series, also returns as director and choreographer.

First, the bad news: The music is a letdown. After two films of unforgettably catchy tunes, the majority of these songs are the kind of impersonal, vaguely competent numbers that are good enough to carry a scene but forgettable enough to evacuate your long-term memory. A few of them (“All I Wanna Do Is Be With You,” “I Want It All,” “A Night to Remember”) rise above the pack, but in general, the bop ratio is a step down from the iconic HSM1 and the sweaty HSM2.

On the other hand, the production values are off the charts compared to the previous outings. Despite a budget of only $11 million dollars (less than 50% more than the TV budget of HSM2!!), Ortega raises the visual polish and energy to a brand new level. (Update: Other reporting puts the budget at $30 million, which is probably the correct number.) The costumes, the rich colors, the choreography, the clean cinematography, the lighting, the location shooting, the props… seriously, everything in this movie looks terrific. There’s a stretch near the start of the film that shows a basketball game which is a piece of blocking bravura; it is presumably entirely (or almost entirely) physically shot, swooping through crowds and flying balls and players to suck us into the high stakes of the opening scene. It takes my breath away every time I watch.

Perhaps no scene captures the film’s professional polish than “I Want It All,” a multi-mise-en-scene production absolutely bursting with inventiveness and humor. I’ve streamed it 50 times on YouTube and find some new fresh thing to look at every time.

Really, every musical scene brings something special to compensate for the underwhelming, forgettable tunes.

I have focused on the sheer filmmaking entertainment value of the film, which is quite high, but there’s a warm story carrying the film, too. It is, in some ways, a retread of previous films: tracing the ups and downs of the production of a musical. But the stakes feel higher in some ways: Scholarships are on the line, adult identities locking into place, and the future of Troy and Gabriella’s romance hanging in the balance.

All of that is pretty much what you’d expect out of a “Senior Year” film. What’s a surprise is the film’s aggressively meta elements: The students are putting on a show recapping the story of their own high school years. Diegesis breaks down in astonishing ways; the line grows blurry between the in-universe musical and the characters spontaneous bursting into song, and in fact explicitly breaks down during “A Night to Remember,” when a prom number turns into an on-stage rehearsal without transition. It gets weirder from there: The film ends with a song just titled “High School Musical,” and after graduation, a curtain falls, the stars reappearing and bowing on a stage as if part of a theatre encore. It’s actually kinda trippy.

There is ultimately something flimsy about the narrative structure, though: Much of the content feels like filler, as if Ortega (correctly) assumes that fans would be satisfied to just enjoy some fun numbers with characters we’ve come to love. It’s shaggy and light despite the higher stakes. Very few of the story beats feel urgent or especially exciting.

Perhaps if the soundtrack had stronger songs and the script had a bit more novelty and bite, its meta elements and remarkable visual energy would make this a series-concluding classic. Instead, it ultimately falls into a similar tier as the previous two entries: the wackiest and best-looking of the trilogy, but slightly uneven otherwise.

But I’ve encountered a surprisingly strong contingent that supports Part 2, and their claims are not without merit. There is a lot to love in this Disney Channel Original Movie. It is a blast of summer energy, and the songs more than match the original. In fact, I think if you were to carve out the musical sequences in each, High School Musical 2 pretty easily takes the cake, even if there’s nothing quite as iconic as Gabriella’s red dress in “We’re All in This Together.”

Some of these numbers are mini-masterpieces, infinitely rewatchable in a vacuum: “What Time Is It,” the “school’s-out” barn burner; “I Don’t Dance,” a hilarious, homoerotic satire of organized sports; “Fabulous,” a maximalist anti-heroine anthem; “Bet On It,” a thumping angst scorcher with eye-popping black-green contrast and a soul-stirring camera stare by Zac Efron; and, my favorite, “All for One,” the giddy surf rock closer.

Oh boy, I just listed a whole soundtrack’s worth of great numbers, didn’t I? I guess the High School Musical 2 soundtrack really is that good. Each of these tracks have their own distinct purpose and visual design. It’s a buffet of Disney pop tunes, united by the theme of highly-saturated colors and summer sweat.

The more I watch these Disney Channel musicals, the more I care about aesthetic, choreography, and sugary soundtrack numbers above all else. By that metric, High School Musical 2 is the undisputable champion of the franchise, and the credit lies in large part to director and choreographer Kenny Ortega. Ortega stretches every dollar; this sequel had a budget of only $7 million, but it looks better than half the movies you’ll see in theaters. (This budget efficiency would be taken to ridiculous extremes in the gaudy High School Musical 3.)

Unfortunately, all that delightful music is burdened by a mean-spirited, soggy story with some seriously questionable character writing.

First, and most brutally, Sharpay is rewritten as an old money country club brat. While it makes for a great song (*pauses writing this review to go watch “Fabulous” on YouTube again*), it completely undermines what made her such a hilarious and memorable character in the first High School Musical. The fact that she simply imagined herself as the queen of the hill based on absolutely nothing but her own self-vision was her charm. She ruled the drama club because no one else was there, and her character was built around the struggle between drama geek and aspiring tyrant. Making her an actual dictator is a bummer.

The entire movie is built around Sharpay manipulating everyone around her because she’s rich, and not much else. It makes for a pretty dour arc (though an effective depiction of class disparity, I suppose). Worse yet, her manipulations work. Everyone except Troy becomes miserable to spend time with; Chad, in particular, comes off as a horrible friend; and yet the movie ultimately vindicates his selfish “if I can’t have it, why should you?” attitude.

The movie’s writing never gets out of its way enough to be fun or rousing for any stretch. In the grand scheme, it doesn’t matter all that much: The plot’s sole purpose is to provide enough conflict to string together a bunch of terrific musical numbers. But after the first movie managed to nail both the characters and the songs, this feels like a failure.

It’s hard to get too worked up, though. Just look at those colors! Flamingo pinks, chlorine blues, MiracleGro greens! The camp factor is amped up, especially for Sharpay. (One friend pointed out to me that the 2011 Sharpay spinoff was pretty unnecessary because High School Musical 2 is already a starring vehicle for her.) It’s simply a joy of a film to look at and listen to.

And when it ends with a big pool dance party, it’s a enough of a chaser to keep you thinking just about the good stuff when the credits roll.

The two biggest strengths of this Disney Channel Original Movie are its cast and its pop-infused soundtrack, well-choreographed by director Kenny Ortega.

It’s tough to imagine the Disney Channel casting team hitting a bigger home run then they did here. For starters, Zac Efron is far and away the most charismatic actor to ever star in a Disney Channel movie (at least of the two dozen or so I’ve seen). It’s no surprise to me that he’s a rare Disney kid who crossed over to the mainstream successfully as a B-list star: He not only makes you believe the fundamental jock-versus-drama kid struggle but — against all reasonable expectations — he actually makes you care about it. He’s not all that much of a singer. In fact, he semi-famously doesn’t even provide vocals for the soundtrack of this outing (apparently his voice dropped between casting and recording time so it was written out of his range). But he’s good enough to carry the movie even if he’s a non-singer leading a musical.

It’s not only Efron, though: Pretty much every cast member is great. Vanessa Hudgens turns in a delightful performance with the right amount of horny subtext in it. Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel lean into the villainous camp of their parts, stealing nearly every scene they are in.

There are a lot of possible descriptors for this soundtrack, but I’d start with: iconic. (“Annoyingly earwormy” is not far behind.) It is, to some extent, impossible for me to separate the film’s zeitgeist and its music’s subsequent inescapability from the actual quality of the songs. But I’d say they hit a pretty high batting average. Certainly, every song is highly functional in teasing out themes and/or laying out plot points. The contrasting styles of Troy and Gabriella versus Ryan and Sharpay bring some fun tension to the soundtrack, although it always makes me wonder if Miss Darbus made the right choice in who to cast. Ryan and Sharpay‘s numbers have a theatrical giddiness to them that seems perfect were one actually casting a high school musical.

For me, the film’s peak is its last 15 minutes, with the one-two punch of “Breaking Free” — a somewhat generic pop ballad enthusiastically performed by “Efron” and Hudgens — followed by “We’re All in This Together” — a rousing finale that’s the best song on the soundtrack by miles. By putting its best moments at the end of the film, High School Musical leaves a pleasant lingering taste, making it easy to forget the lowlights and always tempting me to watch the first few minutes of High School Musical 2 before I turn the TV off.

Unfortunately, High School Musical has some lifeless portions: there’s a long stretch after “Stick to the Status Quo” that just drags on and on until the climax. The character drama in this middle act is both rushed and uninteresting; a potent boredom elixir.

The film also has an over-engineered quality to it, as if designed in a lab to unoffensively appeal to the right demographics. Its messaging is one level beyond “on the nose,” and (other than the weird bit about Sharpay and Ryan being twins auditioning for romantic leads in the play) the movie lacks any edge whatsoever. That it still manages to have so much flavor in spite of the obvious Disney Channel machinery is a true testament to the cast and creative team.

Particularly, Ortega gives the musical numbers such energy and spirit that I suspect they will always hold up. As much as any of the cast, Ortega is the MVP, and he thankfully stayed on for both sequels, both of which build on the strengths of the original while not quite capturing the same lightning in a bottle spark.

As I’ve gotten older, my “guilty pleasure” at enjoying this movie has gradually shifted to outright appreciation. It’s a fun one; peak 2006 vibes, a thrilling and loving execution of the musical format that is all too rare these days.