Step Up 3D

As I sit down to write a review of Step Up 3D, I find myself overcome with indifference. The Step Up series has always been one of those franchises that no one really pays much attention to, but for some reason, refuses to go away. It's main selling point is the urban dance choreography, which is very impressive. There are some talented dancers up there on the screen. But it's never been enough to take my mind off the cliched plot and wooden characters in the previous entries. The move to 3D has not changed things for me.

The plot concerns a kid named Moose (Adam G Sevani), who kind of looks like a younger and even skinnier Michael Cera, but hides a great talent on the dance floor. He's beginning his freshman year at NYU to study engineering, but two minutes upon arriving at the campus, he's dragged into a secret underground dance world. This is the end of his college ambitions, as he spends the rest of the film helping an urban dancer named Luke (Rick Malambri) save his club by competing in a dance tournament for a cash prize. Luke is in danger to losing his club to the bank and an evil dancing group made up of mean rich kids. That's pretty much all you need to know about the plot right there. There's a love interest for both male leads - Luke has the pretty Natalie (Sharni Vinson), while Moose spends so much time with Luke and his friends, he puts his relationship with best girlfriend Camille (Alyson Stoner) in danger. Oh, and Luke has dreams of becoming a filmmaker, and is even working on a documentary about street dancing, but doesn't want to leave his passion for music and dance behind.

I understand that the plot is not what people go to these movies for. But could they throw in an interesting character or two to keep us awake during the scenes when the actors are not dancing? The choreographed dance "battles" are the only moments when Step Up comes to life, and it's not nearly enough. The movie actually seems to think we care about the moldy plot and the paper-thin characters, and spends too much time on stuff the audience couldn't possibly be involved about. So, what are we supposed to care about? I, for one, chose to focus on how unusually green and lush New York City happens to be during what is supposed to be the middle of fall and early winter. In one scene, Moose disappoints Camille by not showing up for a Halloween dance. He makes up for it by taking her to an ice cream truck parked outside a few days later, which would make it early November. Believe me when I say I have been to New York in November, and I did not see many ice cream trucks, or people wearing summer clothes.

The film's selling point is the 3D, which is treated as a novelty here, and usually resorts to a lot of hands and feet being thrust toward the camera, and occasionally some water or a soda from a spilled cup. It's gimmicky, and distracts us from the impressively choreographed dance routines, which did not need special effects to make them stand out in the first place. And because the dance sequences don't come often enough, we're left to contemplate many plot holes. Consider this: Luke used to be best friends with the leader of the evil rich kid dancing team, until they had a falling out. And yet, somehow, Luke does not know his former best friend's immediate family. That's why the villain/former friend is able to use his own sister to sneak into Luke's group, and spy on them. And if Luke is so hard up for money, how can he afford so much fancy computer, film editing, and sound equipment that he has lying around? And why doesn't he just have the members of his dance team go out and get jobs if they're so desperate for cash?

I know I'm not supposed to ask these questions. I'm supposed to get caught up in the film's vibrant energy, and cheer the young heroes on. But that's just the thing. There's very little energy on display outside of the dance scenes. Step Up 3D is a very boring, dim-witted movie that fades from your memory seconds after it ends. This is the kind of movie DVDs were invented for. You can skip right to all the dance scenes, and forget about everything else that comes in-between.

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