Fridae

Sadly, Channing Tatum does not even have a cameo in the third instalment of the Step Up series of dance films. Instead, Step Up 3D brings back Adam Sevani, the actor who stole the show in Step Up 2. This time round, Moose is a freshman in NYU and gets himself embroiled in a bitter war between two rival crews who are competing for blow-out prize money in an inaugural “World Jam” dance contest.

Plot-wise, that’s all the film really needs to work, except that returning director Jon Chu gives us a bit more dramatic padding – fleshing out Moose’s compatriots at The Pirates and making up a sympathetic story about its leader (he’s a trust fund kid whose dancer parents died and would lose his money and home for the love of dance – making the prize money so important), his love interest (of course, a great dancer) and the rival (another trust fund kid, but this one is patently evil!).

Despite Jon Chu paying greater attention to the script and characters, that’s not the reason for watching a dance movie. What seals the deal here is that Step Up 3D is shot entirely in 3D. All the dance choreography and the camera angles are designed to fully engage your 3D spatial awareness, every second of the film. Given that this film features beautiful people doing frenetic freestyle street dance, its sense of energy and vitality really does come flying out of the screen at times. Even during non-dance sequences, Chu doesn’t stint on the 3D at all. Visually, this film is very captivating and easy to marvel at.

For his painstaking and elaborate efforts in adapting the dance film to a 3D format, Chu may one day be recognised as the new Busby Berkley if he keeps up at this.