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very important news

So we went and saw STEP UP 3 IN 3D!!!, and here is my important opinion on it: basically, that shit was straight-up magical. I have not seen any of the other recent 3D stuff, because I am not super “into” movies or something. But when your use of 3D involves, like, Twitch and Kendra Andrews leaning out over the front seats and popping and locking up in my face, then yes, I would risk a thousand headaches for that.

The best thing about this movie is the way its creators have realized that a dance movie is much better if it’s actually a superhero movie, only with dancing instead of fighting. So this takes place in the kind of comic-book New York where Moose (from #2) can break off from an NYU tour group and stumble into a critical dance battle in Washington Square Park. (Ridiculous — I walk through that park twice a day, and I wind up involved in like one battle a month, tops.) Also Red Hook is basically like Mad Max with crumping. But so anyway Moose meets a handsome young guy who’s basically a dancing G.I. Joe with less personality, and he’s whisked off to the secret lair where a crew of dance X-men train, and like … there’s a scene early on where he’s in a hallway being snuck up on by wall-climbing ninjas, and you momentarily fear for his safety, until you remember that all the villains really want to do is dance at him.

Then eventually they have to dance-battle the villains in order to raise the money to save their ~~community center~~ secret lair, so there’s plenty of traditional dance-movie stuff: terrible acting, deep thoughts about following your dreams, etc. (It’s also the only dance movie I can think of that fails the Bechdel Test — poor Camille in this plot — plus has that usual thing of being all about white people surrounded by lots of non-white people who dance better than them. Plus a Ugandan character who occasionally offers wisdom and perspective in a deep and reassuring voice, which he somehow manages to pull off even when he’s wearing, say, a neon tracksuit.)

But still. I think my favorite thing about dance movies (non-ballet variety) is that things like training montages wind up being the best parts of the film. So then here the training montages are equally great, plus then the big dance setpieces are all themed (dust! water! lights!) and 3D choreographed for maximum awesomeness.

This film has a Metacritic rating of 45. This film has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 48%. Apparently the acting and plot aren’t as “believable” as, like, Inception, which is based on a true story. Here is my response to that: IT IS A FREAKING 3D DANCE MOVIE. What is your damned problem.