Review: Shallow characters, deep cinematography makes ‘Step Up 3-D’ a slick, satisfying experience

By Todd Gilchrist HollywoodNews.com: Step Up 3-D has exactly as much plot as it needs, given that it’s really the best-choreographed music video that Hype Williams never made. Filmmaker Jon Chu, who previously made Step Up 2: The Streets and is currently helming one of the most underrated web series on the internet, The LXD, has really mastered the art of directing captivating dance sequences, but he still hasn’t found an emotional foundation equal to his films’ evolving technical virtuosity. But given that an engaging story is only vaguely important in the confines of a world that brings together breakdancing, parkour, acrobatics, lasers, and spectacularly ugly track jackets, Step Up 3-D suffers from no shortcomings important enough to prevent it from being one of the most colorful, effervescent and entertaining films of the summer. Rick Malambri, who looks like the illegitimate lovechild of Ashton Kutcher and Brian Austin Green, plays Luke, the paterfamilias of a dance troupe known as The Pirates. Residing in an impossibly overdesigned New York loft above an equally garish dance club, Luke recruits young dancers around town, including the promising young Moose (Adam Sevani), while shooting an amateur documentary about his friends. But when he crosses paths with Natalie (Sharni Vinson), a dancer whose independence and talent is more than a match for his own, he starts to believe that the Pirates can win the year’s biggest tournament, even as the bank, and a formidable friend-turned-opponent, Julien (the aptly-named Joe Slaughter), threaten to take away his home, his crew, and everything else that matters to him. That’s right: not only is there a competition, but it’s one where the prize money is the only thing that can save the protagonist from losing his home. Oh, and the hero has a privileged rich-boy adversary hell-bent on destroying everything that means anything to him. But, honestly – does any of that cliché-laden conflict matter? No. The reason people are watching the film is to see some spectacular dancing, and they will have long since been satisfied by the time they learn whether Luke and the Pirates triumph over their enemies or end up on the streets. That said, as it currently exists, the script by Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, since the film introduces several promising story threads that might have given it more gravitas. For example, what happens to the stone-faced guy Moose [...]