13: The Musical

Literally just writing this because someone said Eli was obviously much older than the character he's playing. Evan is 13 and Eli is currently 15, they filmed a year ago so no he's not drastically older, he was 14 years old at the time.

Anyways about the movie, it was cute. It was very netflix-esque however which i didn't love aka over the top cheesy and reminiscent of a disney channel original movie. Sad that a lot of the songs were cut from the show as well. But it's not a bad movie and worth watching if you like musicals as well as Jason Robert Brown's music.

The show has changed way too much for this to be called an adaptation. I wouldn't have minded the changes in lyrics but the storyline was revised too much that the entire flow of the story changed. They failed to capture each character. The show started well, which is the main reason I stayed to the end. The movie revolved in Evan getting everyone to go to his party without regard to others. The Broadway told a totally different story. The movie is far from being called an adaptation.

I have not seen the Broadway musical from 2008 that 13: The Musical (2022) is based on, so I do not know if it is better than the movie version. Because I thought 13: The Musical (2022) was ok.

The acting was not that bad, like Eli Golden playing the main character Evan and the other characters were good. The characters were likable enough so you can get behind them, but they make decisions that made no sense.

The songs were fine even though I do not think they are worth listening to repeatedly, but they are fine for what they are. The dance numbers have good dance choreography, and the actors are good in them.

I would have liked the musical numbers to be a bit more spaced out, because they would have a song play right after another song ended. There are moments I thought could have last longer or moments that should have ended but kept going.

Other than those issues, 13: The Musical (2022) was a standard enjoyable enough musical to watch for a 1 hour and 31 minutes. You do not have to rush to Netflix to see this.

This was an absolute dumpster fire of a movie. Pacing was terrible, acting was minimalistic, songs were average.

Furthermore, they took away the point of the original musical which was that teenage kids aren't the most PG beings out there.

This film had one redeemble five minute scene and it was the football boys absolutely rocking and slaying the song "Bad Bad News."

Though the film highlighted many teen issues, the dialogue often felt way too mature. This came across in the musical numbers as well. Granted, many teens today feel as if they know everything, but they're still very immature beings- which makes them intriguing subjects. This film, in its mission to replicate "high school musical" I guess, missed this mark terribly. Other than being cute, these kids lack real depth.

A lot of reviewers on here have commented on how the film is a sanitized version of the stage play. Perhaps this is the overarching issue (I haven't seen the stage play, so can't say for sure).