I went into the Zoey 102 movie largely skeptical because the recent trend of tween show reboots has been... not great. Not bad, just mediocre. And yes, I am looking at you, iCarly. I think I'm probably going to be kind of unique in that Zoey 101 really was my show. Nothing to do with the cast or actors themselves, as I didn't care about that kind of stuff at a young age, but of the many Nick properties, Zoey always stayed my favorite, while I know that a lot of other people don't have as many fond memories of it as, say, iCarly or Victorious.

But honestly? This movie was above average. Did it reinvent the wheel? No. Was it tropey? Yeah. Was it a lot of what I expected the premise to be- Zoey and Chase are broken up but find their way back to each other with everyone else as sort of supporting characters? Yeah, it was that. But something that I think is really lacking in these reboots is usually a combination of acting chemistry and script itself. So, even if the plot comes in weak, which let's face it, a lot of these reboots are wont to do, Zoey pulled off the mild miracle of these characters seeming... real? The dialogue wasn't insanely stilted and cheesy. The chemistry between everyone was believable. Even the jokes landed! Todd, the fake boyfriend, I actually found hilarious. PCA closing down and being a money scheme followed by Stacey's "I have so much student debt" was actually funny. Chase and Todd had a homoerotic duet.

I genuinely think there are only three real gripes I have with this movie (for what it is): 1. Too Much plot 2. Zoey & Chase 3. Underutilized characters

Too Much Plot: The movie just tried to do a little too much with both Zoey working in production on a reality dating show and the fake dating plot, leaving both stories understewed. I loved Todd as a character and think the plot would've been benefited by only picking the fake boyfriend plot. While conceptually I love the idea of Zoey working on a Love Island ripoff, it just doesn't do much for the plot, which is meant to be both a nostalgia trip and romcom. Which brings us into...

Zoey and Chase: I don't think much build-up of the relationship is needed but the conflict and resolution within the movie was subpar; in the car scene, Zoey really just says "Whoops got cold feet" and Chase falls back into the torch he has for her. I don't need a masterpiece, but with the conflict setup (Zoey seriously hurting Chase right after they got together and Chase then ghosting her for literally over a decade for a mistake she made at 18), there needed to be better resolution.

You know, I wrote underutilized characters, I really think I just mean underutilized Michael. I loved Quinn and Logan's subplot that Logan does his richboy thing and wants a big wedding but Quinn feels out of place. Despite being minor characters, Mark and Stacey's murder podcast is cool and funny throughout (and again, could've been pulled off without the reality tv subplot) and their dynamic is really fun with Mark being a complete pushover and Stacey being overbearing, a lot like how Mark and Quinn were when they dated in Zoey 101. So yeah, I just mean Michael. He was there, he lost his voice and really didn't have much of note to do. It's not far off from the main show itself where they just never have much to do with Michael and that's pretty sad. Other than him, the PCA kids got as much screen time as I expected, which is to say, less than Zoey.

Other than those things, I really didn't have any problems with this movie. The jokes landed for me. I didn't mind how tropey it was. I thought it was honestly, a fun romp. Would I recommend it if you don't have Zoey nostalgia? Of course not! But this was far more digestible to me than any episode of the iCarly reboot. I'm kind of shocked to see it getting review bombed and I feel like it has more to do with the cast (*cough* Jamie Lynn *cough*) than the actual end product because... this movie wasn't bad? It was way better than I thought it was gonna be.