Step Up 3D

Dance. To some, it’s a form of expression. To some, it’s an avenue of release. To me, it’s a chance to embarrass myself publicly while wobbling around randomly. Nevertheless, my love for dance remains intimate, though I’ll only ever move my bits in public if I can pass it off as a workout or attribute it to the alcohol.

For the most part when I’m neither at the fitness club or the night club, I enjoy watching dance. I tend to avoid live dance performances due to the fact that I don’t really enjoy very crowded places, so most of my visual dance pleasure comes from movies. There have been lots of movies about dance over the years, and I try to catch every single one of them. More recently, I caught Step Up 3D.

Synopsis

New York’s intense street dancing underground comes alive in eye-popping Digital 3D in the third instalment of the STEP UP franchise as the raw, passion-fuelled culture goes global. A tight-knit group of street dancers, including Luke (RICK MALAMBRI) and Natalie (SHARNI VINSON), team up with NYU freshman Moose (ADAM SEVANI), and find themselves pitted against the world’s best break-dancers in a high-stakes showdown that will change their lives forever.

ADVERTLETS Movie Screening Details
DATE : 25th August 2010 (Wednesday)
TIME : 8pm
VENUE : Tropicana City Mall – Hall 3 (150 seats)

The wonderful thing about dance movies is, you can hardly ever go wrong. You can always expect choreography to be at least interesting enough to be entertaining, or even spectacularly mind-blowing. Throughout the movie, there was a little bit of every part of this spectrum – from the stuff that makes you bounce your shoulders to the beat, and the moves that inspire feelings of wonder and awe.

Story-wise, it’s a typical everything-works-out-fine-in-the-end-for-the-good-guys script, with sufficient doses of predictable friendship values and the lead guys getting the girls. Nothing out of the ordinary in the script, but it’s the choreography and direction of the movie that really gives it that strong punch of entertainment value. There wasn’t enough down time to frustrate, nor too much dance that it overwhelms. Just enough dance, and enough variety and context to make the movie feel packed but doesn’t stretch you out.

The diverse characters in the movie give the necessary flavor to the movie: a little bit of humor, a little bit of charm, a little bit of quaintness, a little bit of drama, a little bit of warmth , and a little bit of sexy. Just enough to make a nice soup.

The movie was shot in 3D, but I only caught the movie in regular 2D. It was entertaining enough that I might just go catch it again in 3D, for that whole immersed experience. I just hope people don’t stare too hard if I start breaking out in dance. I’ll blame the 3D glasses.