We here at The Playlist take pride in our commitment to what cinema sometimes aspires to be – a moving, endearing, soul-searing and ultimately life-changing experience. And even though we are given to the occasional onset of fuddy-duddiness, we recognize the necessity for mass-market produce in the vast aisles of cinema. This is where “Step Up 3D” comes in – engineered up the wazoo for maximum crowd-pleasing appeal.
To understand the legacy (yes, legacy) of breakdancing films, we could go back to “Wild Style” or “Breakin’ ,” but it’s easier to lay the claim of godfather to this century’s dance flick craze before the feet of one long-forgotten 2004 picture – “You Got Served.” Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress out of Asheville, NC put it best in his review – “It’s the Citizen Kane of break-dancing movies! And yet it still isn’t any damned good.” Still, “You Got Served” did good business and as a result, we are subjected to a profitable threequel-meets-newfangled-technology in “Step Up 3D.”
The most surprising thing about this cash cow is that it almost, barely, justifies its use of 3D, which is dispensed throughout the entire picture but particularly spices up the already-impressively choreographed dance sequences. There are moments in these fervently-delivered, no doubt endlessly rehearsed routines that feel genuinely fresh and the 3D surprisingly adds to the too-cool-for-school, you-are-there feel of the proceedings. The soundtrack is stacked with club tunes, heart thumping bass and a tempo that refuses to let up. It’s all sound and fury, music video chic that sticks out in the wasteland of cliché-ridden plot proceedings.
With Channing Tatum having moved on to better things, Adam G. Sevani steps up to the dance floor as Moose, reprising his role from the previous film. Having just been accepted to NYU, Moose finds himself in the midst of an impromptu dance routine that catches the eye of Luke (Rick Malambri), who runs a foster home/dance club called The Vault. The Vault houses the House of Pirate, a dance crew whose major rival is the House of Samurai…oh why do I bother? There is the necessary female love interest, in this case Natalie (Sharni Vinson, struggling to wrench emotion out of her character’s predicament). And Moose perfectly fits the role of the fresh-faced dance clown/virtuoso, whose bold-yet-relaxed demeanor and smooth moves almost make him right on time and on-the-spot with a spotless dance delivery.
But I digress. “Step Up 3D” is a product of its time, inevitably profligate and at the same time, preaching to the better impulses of the runaways — the homeless men and women for whom dance is not just an answer, but the answer. Or at least so the first and last couple of minutes reminds us. Overall, the film is entertaining as long as you can stomach the emaciated plot and largely emotionless acting by the cast. If you came for the dancing, you’ll get your money’s worth but reaching for your watch or your XXX-tra large mostly-watered-down soda is not out of the question [C-] – Mark Zhuravsky
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There’s a moment in “Step Up 3D” where the limber Moose (Adam Sevani from the second film) attempts to charm his lady love by demanding the radio be turned up. No, it’s not the latest Flo Rida jam, or a Britney/Michel Jackson mashup, or whatever those infernal kids are listening to. It’s actually Fred Astaire’s “I Won’t Dance,” which gets the androgynous, happy-footed protag of this particular dance epic into a performing mood. As he rambles through a busy New York City street with his paramour, Alyson Stoner’s Camille, in one shot, the couple move back and forth past a series of brownstones, matching each other step by step and the song becomes an eclectic remix, ending in the two of them holding each other under a cascade of city leaves. It’s sweet, inventive, and unless you have a cold heart, very much movie magic.
To begrudge the presence of the “Step Up” movies is to deny the legacy of movies spotlighting hoofers completing flights of fancy, often in service of a flimsy storyline. But what does it matter when, on foot, these performers almost seem as superpowered as your average comic book hero? “Step Up 3D” never pretends to be happening in real life, with it’s implication that going to film school is somehow akin to working for “the man” as well as the idea that there are dance communes out there, particularly in this economy, where no one ever needs a job.
And at times, the moments without dance are fairly difficult to sit through. Rick Malambri and Sharni Vinson in particular are two leads without a spark between them, Malambri’s earnest intensity matched by Vinson’s winsome generic physicality, and neither gets real showcase dance moments. But in the underground world where they are part of a dance team competing in the World Jam, you can forgive them when they take a back seat to a United Nations of smooth criminals tearing up the dance floor. The secret weapon this time around, the one that would have made, say, the obnoxious preening of Channing Tatum in the first film tolerable? 3D.
We’re not a fan of 3D as a storytelling tool, as we find it hard to believe the gimmick can make a regularly compelling conflict more interesting. But in the service of firework shows like “Step Up,” where our characters seem to join a Justice League of talented hot-steppers, the dance sequences pop off the screen with radiant, exciting energy. It enlivens mostly mundane practice segments, and turns the most high-energy battles into propulsive, enthusiastic battle matches. Credit to the mostly amateur cast, who don’t seem capable of too many human emotions but have a palpable energy that comes from a natural desire to perform, either in groups or as individuals. Special credit to the gentleman who makes every move in robot posture; the movie lightly implies that he has no ‘off’ switch.
Not the model of narrative achievement you’d hope for, and filled with layers of cynical product placement that recognize the film’s audience as mostly absent-minded consumer automatons, “Step Up 3D” shouldn’t qualify as a towering achievement in film. But to deny the electric life-force behind every hop, skip and jump in immersive 3D? With obviously talented performers taking the camera to places your average studio film wouldn’t go, “Step Up 3D” is following in the proud tradition of cinematic vehicles for performers to, sans pretension, put on a show. To not be moved is understandable. To not want to move afterwards? Inhuman.[B] -Gabe Toro