Step Up 3D

Under the continued direction of Jon Chu (who took over from Anne Fletcher for Step Up 2 the Streets), Step Up 3D elevates the ridiculous to new levels—and that isn’t meant in a good way. And yet, the badness is so over the top and everybody seems to be perfectly aware of it, that it doesn’t get in the way of a certain level of enjoyment.

When last seen, Moose (Adam G. Sevani) was a gawky geeky high school kid who loved to dance in Baltimore. Now Moose is a gawky geeky freshman at New York University who still loves to dance, but for some reason is supposed to have given it up to be an engineering major (this seems to be at the prodding of his parents, but one then wonders why they’d been paying for him to go to the Maryland School of Art in the last movie).

On his first day in New York, Moose ditches lifelong friend Camille (Alyson Stoner) when he sees someone wearing a fancy pair of Nikes and stumbles into an impromptu dance-off. When he wins—apparently beating one of the best—he’s drafted into a dance crew called House of Pirates by its leader, Luke (Rick Malambri), who also offers up a giant Bohemian loft for everyone who needs a place to stay. Of course, he’s behind on the mortgage and to save the loft, the House of Pirates needs to go all Brady Bunch and win the upcoming World Jam dance battle, which comes with a $100,000 prize. And as expected, there’s a vitriolic rivalry with another crew that will win at all costs, as well as the obligatory pretty girl (Sharni Vinson), who shows up to create drama for Luke while also falling in love.

Since the movie doesn’t really take any of this seriously, there’s no reason for the audience to do so. After all, this crew apparently warms up for dance rehearsal by doing parkour sprints across the New York rooftops, and rival dance gangs menace people in (amazingly large) club restrooms with their wicked moves. When nothing is particularly serious, it is difficult to get too worked up about the atrocious acting, writing, and filming of the not-dancing scenes—and it is really atrocious.

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