Step Up 3D

For reasons I cannot entirely explain I was drawn to the theater to see Step Up 3D. I think I anticipated an epic combination of ridiculous dialog/story, hard to believe could be done dancing and super-gratuitous use of the third dimension. The trailer certainly pointed in that "we have a house for dancers, they live together, train together, battle together" boy is this silly direction. The reality was it was fun to watch if at times silly - but all in hey this isn't as bad as I expected vs I'm making fun of the film way. Plus, it's one of the few times that I felt the 3D gimmick brought something extra to a film.  If this was a post-film conversion it's the best I've ever seen - and I'm inclined to believe it was actually filmed in 3D.

Things at first did seem laughable as mom and dad drop their son off at NYU along with his (for then) platonic (but come on we know where this is going) childhood female friend. He's there to study electrical engineering and one of the parents remarks with some relief that they're so glad he's done with that "dancing thing". One is barely done groaning from that when he watches and then accidentally "battles" a dancer in the park.  Which is when things decidedly pick up.  After his accidental challenge he meets the oft bare-chested leader of the film's "good" dance crew, indulges in a little parkour and is quickly drawn into the film's storyline.

The film's plot is a straight out of a Brady Bunch episode affair where in order to save their house the dancers need to win a big $100k competition and defeat the nemesis of their leader (who secretly wants to be a filmmaker who chooses his school from a bus shelter poster which kept cracking me up).  There are a couple of love interests, foreign accents, twin and trips around NYC tossed in to try to make it something more than a cool dance movie.  While I didn't quite warm to many of the characters all that junk is secondary to the dancing.  Which is pretty terrific - and once again I've got to say the 3D really worked pretty well throughout.  And I'm not at all a dance movie person.  So come to think of it maybe I did really like it for the cheesy romantic angle.  You'll never know. ;-)  Either way, I can say that if the trailer at all appeals to you I don't think you'll be terribly disappointed.

OK - that's all for now.  Back to watching the doc Planet B-Boy to better understand the rules of a dance "battle."  Almost forgot - I did give Step Up 3D a bonus point in my book for having a character who's an engineer who's not a total dork.  Actually, he is still pretty geeky - but at least he doesn't necessarily give up his engineering degree to indulge his other passion.