Step Up 3D: Dance, Dance and… DANCE!
Both men decided too late that the Ultra-Mega-Burrito was not a good idea right before dance practice.
Rating: 8 out of 10
3D has become the banner of a film industry looking for anything to spark the box office back to its previous high water mark, but many films use it only for the monetary bump, not to enhance the viewing experience. A few rare choices in the last year have actually made the extra dimension worthwhile, like Avatar, Despicable Me and How To Train Your Dragon, with an honorable mention to the short film in front of Toy Story 3. Even going back to the beginning of the recent 3D craze there was My Bloody Valentine, which truly catered to the technology in the way it was originally intended. So, it was with a true touch of skepticism that I entered the theater, high-tech, battery powered 3D glasses strapped to my head and waited to see what the world of hip-hop and dance could do with their extra dimension.
Step Up 3D has very little to do with the previous two films in the franchise. Moose, the lone holdover from Step Up 2 The Streets, has traveled to N.Y.U. to fulfill his parents dream by getting an engineering degree and leaving all that silly dance stuff far behind. He finds that extremely difficult since on his orientation tour he accidentally enters himself into a dance battle and wins, making himself enemy number one on the hip-hop hitlist of a local dance crew known as The Samurai. Luke, the lead hero of the movie, takes Moose under his wing and initiates him into his own crew, The Pirates, as they attempt to win the upcoming World Jam and earn enough cash prizes to buy the building where they all live and train.
Some people might wonder how I could rate a dance movie so high, only one down the totem pole from Inception, which some would think of as a travesty even being mentioned in the same long, run-on sentence, but my ratings are based on what type of movie it is and if it fulfilled its main objective. Dance films have one driving force – to showcase dancers and their incredible talents. If they can pull together a coherent story and make an audience feel something beyond the rhythm in their seats, then they have moved beyond the grade of a common genre flick. Step Up 3D definitely showcased the dancers, and by default the incredible choreography, by really paying attention to the movement of the camera during the various dance sequences. There is nothing more that I despise than quick, unmotivated MTV-style cuts during dance sequences, fight scenes, highly technical action sequences and the like. All you end up seeing is a lot of limbs flying in front of camera with no context or character. Here, they locked the camera center stage numerous times and only moved back to open up the frame even more, truly featuring the talent on display.
Also, the 3D element did not feel like a last minute add-on for a couple bucks per ticket increase. There were very specific moments in the film where the dancers popped out from the screen and it enhanced the experience of watching their highly technical moves. Even in the non-pop-out moments, the extra depth into the screen really provided a sense of place and character to the dance sequences that I feel would have been lacking otherwise.
As for the acting, where most people don’t expect much, I was shocked by the power and passion displayed by one of the films co-stars, our one man connection to the previous film, Moose, aka Adam G. Sevani. Born into a musical family and dancing since he was a wee toddler, Sevani filled his moments with heart and passion where many others just filled the frame. He stole each and every scene with a touching sense of honesty and a purity towards dance which poured out of the screen. His plotline was technically the ‘B’ story, but he yanked it out of the background and made the entire movie revolve around him. The saddest part of the film ending is wondering whether Sevani will actually keep working on acting, along with his amazing dance skills. Dance as a part of our culture is becoming bigger and bigger every year, with help from numerous TV hits like Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance (the latter featuring Adam Shankman as a permanent judge, who also helped produce Step Up 3D). You never know whether another Step Up could be in the future, but if it does find its way onto the big screen, they better bring back Sevani or they can count on my rating being much, much lower.
The End of the Page Recommendation: Best all-around film of the franchise so far, but if you don’t like dance flicks, this will not put the spring in your step.
Thoughts? How’s it compare to other dance flicks?
Tags: adam g. sevani, adam shankman, avatar, dance, dancing with the stars, despicable me, hip hop, how to train your dragon, inception, movie, music, my bloody valentine, review, so you think you can dance, step up 2 the streets, step up 3d, the end of the page, toy story 3
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