Step Up 3D

Last week I watched Step Up 3D in GSC 1Borneo. With all the hype surrounding the movie, I just got to see it for myself.

RM15 well-spent? We'll see.

Let’s get this out of the way first. I’m not a big fan of dancing. I’m also not a big fan of dance movies. Particularly because all of them (the one I’ve seen anyway) feels exactly the same. Generally, the formula always goes something like this

• There’s always going to be a big dance-off competition around the corner and the dance crew (in this movie, The Pirates) is preparing for it.
• The new guy (if there is any) awes everybody with his/her dance moves. The new guy joins the crew.
• Mid-way through the movie, something goes wrong. E.g.: A person betrays the team by leaking their dance moves and/or joins the opposing team. Mind you, this happens conveniently right before the final showdown.
• Everybody give up hope and suddenly, a person in the team (usually the new guy) inspires everyone to move on.
• They defy the odds and win the competition.

The new guy.

The question remains. Is Step Up 3D any different? The answer is no. It’s the same old, same old.

Don’t take me wrong however. I LOVE this movie. Seriously, we all know we didn’t come and watch this movie to enjoy the “deep” storyline. We came to see the DANCE MOVES and my God, this movie is saturated with fantastic choreography. From the robot dance to the finals where The Pirates put lots and lots of LEDS on their shirt, the dances were out of this world. With the exception of a few of course, which looks like a bunch of people having a seizure. But that just probably me.

Did I mention that I watched this movie in 3D? After my horrible 3D experience (if you can even call it that) with The Last Airbender, I was understandably a bit reluctant to spend my RM15 for the ticket. Thank God it was worth it. Everything felt like it’s going to pop out any moment from the screen and some scenes were cleverly designed for this purpose. From the bubbles, the flying slurpee, splashing water on my glasses and so on. Now this is what I’m talking about.

Surprisingly, my favorite part of the movie is the one where Moose and Camille dance to “I Won’t Dance”. Nothing fancy and nothing acrobatic. Just two person dancing and act silly together. It felt so light-hearted, cheerful and somewhat romantic.(Yeah, I'm cheesy.)

Talking about romantic, there’s Luke and Natalie. Yes, they showed interest to one another and yes, they lived happily ever after at the end of the movie but somehow I didn’t feel like rooting for them. I don’t know, maybe it was poorly written and never got expanded enough due to the amount of dancing in this movie. Who knows, who cares.

In conclusion, would I recommend this movie? Absolutely. The dancers and the dance moves are out of this world. It’s fun to watch and well-worth the RM15 I spent. Oh, and did I mentioned the robot man? He’s cool too.