Step Up 3D

I am brave enough to admit that the trailer for Step Up 3D got me very pumped for its release. I didn’t necessarily think it would be a good film but the dancing looked, what’s the phrase? “Dope.” Saw I went and even threw down the extra five bucks, or so, for the 3D specs. I usually pass on that scam but this time I felt compelled to “experience” this motion picture event.

Pretty much everything that I expected from the movie came true in the end. First, there is the obvious strength, the dancing. I am no professional but I’ve watched enough dancing shows to know that break dancing is pretty incredible. The use of professional dancers as opposed to actors in the majority of the roles makes the battles and random acts of dancing quite impressive.

Then throw in that aforementioned money making tool known as 3D and I can genuinely say that Step Up 3D is the best utilization of the 3D method in a motion picture I have seen to date. That, of course, does not include the cool Disney World attractions. I wasn’t even that impressed with Avatar in 3D. I apologize to all the ‘Avatar-ds’ who take this as sacrilege. Step Up 3D actually has things pop out at the audience. It may be shallow and it contributes very little to the effectiveness of the film but if I’m paying for the stupid glasses I want some actual 3D happening.

Now to bring this review back to reality a bit. The acting is terrible. The best moments of dialogue are jokes, where the audience is distracted, and those aren’t that funny. None of the actors are terribly unlikeable but none have the ability to carry a successful film. Then when the main premise of your movie revolves around a group of dancers who live together in an abandoned factory and seem to lack jobs and an understanding of the outside world, the chances of Oscar worthy performances tend to be unlikely. Step Up 4 should just be a 90-minute dance-off and my score for it will be much higher than this. (6.7 out of 10)