Step Up 3D, Starring Rick Malambri, Adam Sevani and Sharni Vinson; directed by Jon Chu
The latest franchise to join the 3D craze, the Step Up dance flick makes an easy transition into the cheesy new territory.
However, even if the dance numbers are better than ever, and really pop in the third dimension, it’s tough to recommend a film with such horrendous writing and acting. Sure this is a staple of the series, and most fans probably won’t care, but for those of you unwilling to shell out top dollar for So You Think You Can Dance on the big screen, Step Up is best avoided.
Much like Underworld: Rise of the Lycans used Kate Beckinsale lookalike Rhona Mitra to lure in naïve fans, this third installment has a Channing Tatum doppleganger by the name of Rick Malambri to please fangirls wanting to relive Step Up 1. Luckily Tatum is one of the worst actors on the planet – so replacing him with a better dancer who bears Channing’s only assets (broad shoudlers, a chiseled jaw and pouty lips if you must ask) is actually a plus. In Step Up 3, he plays Luke, the head of the “Pirate Dance Crew”.
The plot’s fairly half-baked, and takes Luke and other members of his goofy troop, including Natalia (who kinda looks like Step Up’s heroine Jenna Dewan) and pits them against the world’s best hip hop dancers in a high-stakes showdown.
We enter this world through the perspective of Camille Gage, Tyler “Channing Tatum” Gage’s sister, who enters NYU alongside Step Up 2 alum Robert “Moose” Alexander III ostensibly for studies. Mama Moose doesn’t want her son risking his economic future, and thus has decided to become an electrical engineer. Of course, when both get wrapped into the dancing battles after only a day of class, you can guess what happens to those career aspirations.
The story sucks but it only exists to link together the sumptuous dance numbers, which under Jon Chu’s veteran hands, look absolutely fantastic. The camera pulls back and really lets these performers pull off insane routines, in all sorts of contemporary fusion themes. The contorting, twirling, flipping and abs-bearing cartwheels and aerials look smashing on the sexy young cast and do you really need anything else? One can argue that once you’ve seen one dance flick, you’ve seen them all, but as a connoisseur of B-grade horror trash, I know that dance flicks are like any other acquired (bad) taste.
Rating: Three stars out of five
