Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam is the sequel to the 2008 Disney Channel original movie Camp Rock. Directed by Paul Hoen, this 2010 film follows Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato) as she returns to the music-oriented summer camp “Camp Rock” in order to immerse herself in the joy of music making and to rekindle her romantic relations with Shane Gray (Joe Jonas) from the summer before. These plans, however, are interrupted when Camp Rock discovers that a new camp, Camp Star, has opened across the lake and plans to steal away Camp Rock’s campers and staff. As a result, the two camps face off to determine which one has more talent and deserves to remain open.
Camp Rock 2 struggles narratively as it completely disregards the character development made in its predecessor, specifically with the character Tess. At the end Camp Rock, Tess learns to respect her fellow campers and to share the spotlight with other talented people; however, in the sequel, Tess joins Camp Star, becoming the villain once more, and strives to be the star of the show again. The narrative also falls short in its attempt at a Romeo and Juliet-esque side plot between Nate Gray (Nick Jonas) and Dana Turner (Chloe Bridges). The two spend most of the movie pining over each other, but there is almost no payoff and progress in their relationship by the end of the film. And even though the writers try to frame this as forbidden love, Dana’s father does little to prevent the two from seeing each other. Although he does discourage Dana from associating with Nate due to his enrollment in the rival camp, he barely shows any disapproval when he actually sees the two together. This bad writing, coupled with the mediocre acting of most of the cast, leaves something to be desired. In addition, lazy editing allowed for minor, but still noticeable, continuity errors.
In the grand scheme of Disney Channel original movies, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam is subpar at best. Not only is the narrative flawed, but the plot is void of any substantial take-away morals that most Disney movies have. Throughout the film, Mitchie overworks her fellow campers in preparation for the competition, making them rehearse nonstop and suppressing any joy that the campers used to have in making music. Mitchie’s only goal is to win, which causes her to push away her close friends and Shane and to break promises that she had previously made. Although this sort of behavior should be looked down upon, the campers submit to and even commend Mitchie’s overbearing attitude. As a result, Mitchie essentially gets away with her nagging and disrespect. This is not a good message to send to an audience, especially the young children that Camp Rock 2 is aimed towards.
Camp Rock 2 fails to be a satisfying sequel to its predecessor not only due to its lackluster storyline, but also because of the music. The musical numbers in the sequel fall short of the hit songs of the original movie. The music in Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam is perhaps the biggest contributor to the movie’s downfall. For a musical about a music-based summer camp, Camp Rock 2 fails to present any memorable songs. Most of the songs follow the general pop formula, making them predictable and boring.
The songs are also tarnished by the terrible job that the post-production crew did in balancing the volumes of the music, vocals, and background foley sounds. Given their success after their careers in Disney, it is clear that Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas are talented vocalists. However, their singing in Camp Rock 2 is sadly drowned out by the music, making it hard to hear. This error in sound-mixing is made even worse by the strangely loud background noises. In one number, the jarring roar of the pyrotechnics that the campers use in their performance far overpowers the music and the singing. This ear-rupturing explosion of sound repeats several times throughout the duration of the song, but the sheer shrillness of it is enough to make the audience jump in surprise every time. The same sound balancing issue appears in a later music number, where the sound of the campers banging on tables vastly overpowers the music and singing. The lack of good sound mixing sullies the entire musical experience, making it less immersive and almost painful to listen to.
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam is a disappointing movie and sequel. With a flawed storyline, unmemorable musical pieces, and bad editing, this film is not worth rewatching. The cliche storyline has been done before countless times, with many attempts being better executed than this one, and the only aspect of the forgettable music that sticks to the mind is the overwhelming background noises that drown out the singing. When watching Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, it seems as if the only good things that came out of this film were the future music careers of Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers.
5 thoughts on “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam”
You capture beautifully the challenges and pitfalls that sequels to successful movies are faced with. The challenge to create a compelling new story that stays true to the first movie without mimicking it, and the dangerous decline of quality apparent in the movie. Your analysis of the plot and the character development is well supported and I see exactly how you would come to the conclusions you lay out.
I remember this film from my childhood and I don’t remember caring about it much, but I have grown to realize a lot of modern DCOMs are generally manufactured and shallow with a focus on marketing new music over a good story. I’m surprised to hear Mitchie being controlling wasn’t frowned upon considering most movies of this type have a cliche “friends over victory” message throughout. I like that you tackle the sound mixing being poor because I’ve seen other musicals where I can’t hear the lyrics over the music, and it can be very frustrating, especially if the songs are meant to push the narrative forward.
When I first started to read your review I struggled to remember the plot line of this movie because I agree that it was subpar at best, and especially being a sequel did not live up to the first movie. When you mentioned how the crew did a terrible job in balancing the sounds in production numbers, it all came flooding back to me. I remember watching this movie with friends who loved it, but I couldn’t believe how terrible the sound quality was. I remember not being able to sing along because I couldn’t hear the words, and this movie in particular (being framed around music) is supposed to gain success from its musical numbers and quickly a child can learn the lyrics and sing along. This was not an option for this movie and I remember being frustrated as a child because of this. In general, Disney Channel original movies are not going to be critically acclaimed amongst adults or even teens, but your review brought me right back to my childhood and being extremely disappointed in the production of this movie. I agree wholeheartedly with your review and admire how well you were able to support your opinion with multiple different elements of this movie.
You did a good job explaining the faults of this movie. I have never seen this movie, but reading your review gave me a good sense of why this film is bad.
I think you did a precise, convincing job putting together a cohesive argument against the stylistic works of Camp Rock 2 while juggling multiple elements of the movie. You don’t only focus on plot or simply character development, but you bring those two together along with touching on inconsistent storyline and arguably one of the most important elements of the movie- sound. Though I watched the first Camp Rock, I could not bring myself to watch the second when I was younger because I figured that it would not live up to the hype. I am relieved to see that your review affirmed my suspicions. However, what can we expect from a movie that is geared towards an audience that still doesn’t willingly eat vegetables?