High School Musical 2 is a hollow victory for the Disney Channel crew, for while it's not really any worse than its predecessor, it's still a massive pile of pure idiocy. Try as I might, I'm not able to fathom how the original offering became popular enough to spawn a line of merchandising that makes the SpongeBob folks look like underachievers. However, I guess a sequel was a logical step after the first movie racked up some of the biggest ratings in the Disney Channel history. 

High School Musical 2 picks up on a most sacred occasion for the students of East High School: the first day of summer break. Young sweethearts Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens), as well as all their friends, are in search of a little work to earn some cash over their vacation time. Out of nowhere, Troy lands a job at a ritzy country club, even managing to get Gabriella and pretty much the whole East High gang in there too.

What Troy doesn't know, however, is that it's all a ploy by spoiled brat/drama club maven Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) to woo him away from Gabriella and use him to help secure a victory in the club's upcoming talent show. Promises of a bright collegiate future do the trick in causing Troy to stray from his friends, a problem that's going to take a little more than a few song-and-dance numbers to fix.

You have no idea how confused I am concerning why High School Musical and, now, its sequel are such  extremely popular, hyped-up events. I've seen a good chunk of the Disney Channel's other homemade movies, which range from the passable (A Ring of Endless Light) to the absolutely abominable (The Cheetah Girls). HSM seems caught up in the same type of mediocrity, so why is it a runaway success? And, sadly, High School Musical 2 simply trades things up for a different flavor of cheese.

While the first movie's story was a merciless and charmless Grease ripoff, HSM2 goes for the "fame isn't everything" stand-by, seemingly a favorite plot structure of the Disney Channel (for example, The Cheetah Girls and Read It and Weep.) No attempts are made to change the formula or bring some freshness to the table; director Kenny Ortega and crew are just going through the motions, having picked a ready-made story to film for the umpteenth time so HSM2 could be consumed by its fanbase as soon as possible.

But the story doesn't make much sense; the movie's never really sure why Sharpay is after Troy in the first place. Is it out of a jealous crush or merely to help her win a talent show? This sort of laziness is inherent throughout the movie and comes across as condescending  to kids, only none of the movie's fans seem to pick up on it.

As for the soundtrack, the songs are cut from the same cheesy pop-music cloth as in the first HSM, but the numbers seem even cornier here. One only has to see  Troy's solo dance on a golf course near the end of the movie to realize it's indeed possible to combine every dancing cliche into one cornball package.

In terms of the acting, these kids -- who should start envisioning futures beyond more High School Musical sequels -- all fulfill the one-note roles the script requires to the best of their abilities: Efron's the poster child for Tiger Beat, Hudgens is brainy but beautiful, Tisdale is the spoiled schemer, and the other cast members follow suit with their respective performances.

Although I'm not part of the target audience for High School Musical 2, I do try to keep in touch with my inner child enough to be able to enjoy movies that are less cerebral and more fluffy. But even so, like its predecessor, High School Musical 2 breaks the cardinal rule of family movies: the whole family has to be able to enjoy it. Yes, the kids will probably go ga-ga over this sequel -- but parents might want to grab a couple of those HAZMAT suits before flipping on the tube.

MY RATING: * 1/2 (out of ****)

(Released by Walt Disney Pictures; not rated by MPAA.)