boredsilly

I pretty much wish these movies were only dance scenes. I would love to be able to go and get all of the dancing in 45 minutes, without dealing with the shitty connective tissue that holds these movies together. And I say this as a fan of this franchise.

The Bus

Wait... shit. It's not all dancing?

I want to see this but not if this.

Pizza

Most people would feel ripped off if they went and saw a movie that was only 45 minutes. For me, the "connective tissue" gives me a break between the high-energy numbers and helps build anticipation for the next routine. I guess it would help if they would work harder on a better story to fill in the gaps. It's sort of like watching a Godzilla movie. You sit through the boring plot for the monster battles. I've not seen any of these films (but would like to) so I'll have to take your word on the plotting. I greatly enjoy watching "You Think You Can Dance?" on TV.

boredsilly

Yeah, I get that. I just think with these movies, I would be totally fine with just a bunch of different dance vignettes. And I might have been overstating the "shitty" aspect. I mean, the stories in these movies are absolutely nothing special, and cheesy and cliche, but it's not painful to watch. The Step Up movies definitely aren't on the absolutely embarrassing level of a You Got Served.

All that said? I think Step Up 4 is probably the best yet. I think it has the best lead in a long while (I love Moose, but that other generic square jaw from 3 was pretty bad, as was the girl from 2), as well as the best romance since the first for what that's worth. I mean, it's all still very corny, but if that's going to be a good portion of the movie, you should at least like the characters that are on the screen.

But who cares about that. This movie is all about the dancing, and it is very very good this go round. There isn't a lot of "in your face" stuff with the 3d like there was in Step Up 3, but instead is more about adding depth which is how I prefer it. There is one scene in this movie that is just absolutely blew my mind. For those who have seen it, the sequence with the Jellyfish Ballerinas is one of the coolest things I've seen this summer. It's a quick section of a larger dance sequence, but I was absolutely memorized by it.

One thing I feel Revolution gets better than some of the other movies in this franchise is the dancing is actually pretty beautiful here. In earlier movies it felt like there was a focus on on the aggression and battle aspects of dancing, but here I feel like I was more able to appreciate the routines on an artistic level.

I'm very pleased with Revolution. I'm curious to see what the rest of you think.

Having seen it, I can see why there was talk of taking out the one scene. It is a bit eerie, but I'm glad it was left it. It would have been silly to take it out. It also would have left a large hole in the movie.

Oh, and much fuss was made over Scarlett Johannson's donkey from Avengers, but the best ass of the summer belongs to the female lead in this movie. Good god.

majorjoe23

Or how you sit through the pizza delivery scene for the porn.

Giles

I had quite few problems with this movie both from the movie itself and the presentation I saw. For starters this is no where as good, exuberant or thrilling Step 3 was. Sure the plot is wafer thin and the dancing is what you go to see and expect, but what the filmmakers did and how it was shot was problematic. The editing is too quick for the 3D to work at times and when a sequence does work it just glosses over to some other aspect of the dance number - this is evident notably in the museum dance sequence when we briefly glimpse the dancers with the glow wire ball shaped objects - we barely see them used and the quick time we do, it seems like a wasted 3D moment. This is also evident in the final dance number when the instance of a trampoline is used - the camera should have been rigged looking down on the dancers jumping up towards the camera, but no. In Step Up 3 - the filmmakers really embraced the 'in your face' moments - here it's used at a minimum.

As for the songs themselves, they were so generic and unmemorable (sans maybe the office lobby Radiohead remix) it didn't compliment the choreography.

As a plus I did like the two lead characters/actors and the integration of traditional ballet.

Another huge mistake was shooting this in scope (2.35) - I thought the theater had accidently projected it wrong, but what you witness is framing that looks cropped, oddly framed and disjointed - it's a glaring visual faux pas.

lastly this is not a projection problem on the part of AMC (where I saw it) but I think I'd point my finger at Summit Entertainment - the DCP seemed to be encoded at low light and very little color pop to it - I've seen other movies on this screen, and the Sony projector has great color reproduction and brightness - here though it was severely lacking, early on I told management that the image looked too dark - they did fix it, I noticed the image get slightly brighter but not so much that it dramatically improved it.

all in all, just okay.

stingermck

Agree with much of what Giles said. Not as good as 3, only decent use of 3-D, and was just ok. I did like the leads though, and their final dance with the Miami backdrop was beautiful.

FantasticVSDoom

Hmmm... Disappointing. Now wondering if I should go or not.

Patman

Having seen Kathryn McCormick's season on "So You Think You Can Dance", I knew I'd check out this movie, having become a fan of her dancing from that season, plus she looks like Taylor Cole's sister who can also really dance, that doesn't hurt. As with most of the films of the Step Up franchise, you go to see the dancing, and they barely hang together with thin plots and characterizations. This time around, the characterizations aren't too thin, but just uninvolving, but passable at the same time.

The 3D is unneeded, but there are weird lighting choices in many of the scenes which undermine some of the cinematic quality of the dance numbers.

If you're a fan of the series, and mainly for the dance numbers, go to a matinee showing.

I give it 2.75 stars or a grade of B- (mainly for Kathryn's dancing).

Matthew Chmiel

Step Up Revolution is a great example of a film where everything is in place to make a crowd pleasing film, but someone manages to fuck it all up because they have a severe case of ADHD. Now not to discredit the film as Revolution is far superior to the first two entries in the franchise. However, it's nowhere near as fantastic as Step Up 3D. There's a lot of smart ideas in play the film has to offer. Again, someone manages to fuck it all up.

1. The plot is paper-thin. The producers have finally got the clue that nobody comes to see these films for their plot and here it serves as just an extension to move from set piece to set piece. The problem that lies here is two-fold. First, we're not presented likable characters as we were in Step Up 3D. What makes the former film a blast is the characters just seem like cool and fun people to hang out with. With Revolution, we get a bromance between a retarded, low-rate James Franco and a retarded, low-rate Josh Hutcherson that's threatened by Kathryn McCormick who can't act her way out of a paper bag. Secondly, the writer here decided it's a great idea to take the absolute worst story ideas from the first and third films and combine them. Instead of creating a new and interesting story for the fourth go-around, we get a rehash of what we've seen before. If we were given likable characters and a paper-thin plot that's easy to digest and somewhat original, this would've been a non-issue.

2. The dance sequences are a lot more elaborate and are pretty cool. I'd argue that some moments like the opening and final dance sequences are greater than what we saw in the last film. However, Speer and his editors fucking demolish everything at play by both ruining the visual effect of the dances and 3D by so many goddamn hyper edits.

First off, I came to see a dance movie in 3D. I didn't come to see a bunch of overgrown hispanics with their mouths agape watching people dance in 3D. Every dance sequences was riddled with the reaction shots of the audience. Secondly, as Giles mentioned, a lot of shots could've either been expanded on or just done differently. Again, there's a lot of cool ideas at play involving water, sand, lasers, smoke grenades, fires, trampolines, wires, etc. that would've looked sweet in 3D... if Speer and his team were competent and kept the shots at a minimum. You know why the 3D works in Step Up 3D so well? Jon M. Chu kept everything in frame and didn't have a field day at the editing bay. The final fifteen-minute dance battle at the end consists of a handful of shots. The final dance sequences at the end of Revolution must've had at least over a hundred of shots.

What kills me is there's a lot more footage of the gallery dance sequence that didn't make it into the final film. By far it was the most interesting set piece in the film, but one that is completely ruined by Speer's hyper editing and completely demolishes the 3D effect.

3. The crowd went wild at the cameo appearance of Moose at the end. So, uh, why the fuck didn't you make the film about Moose? Clearly there's a character in this franchise that people want to see. Yet the producers have picked two leads, who are the by far the worst couple this franchise has seen yet, despite the fact there are individuals available who could've rocked it. I don't need a romance. You could've just had The Pirates sans the love interest just dance for 90 minutes in 3D and I would've been cool. Hell, just give me a 90-minute film involving Madd Chadd in a police uniform shoving donuts into people's faces in 3D and that would've been more than enough for me.

Again, there's a lot to like about Step Up Revolution, but the execution from a technical standpoint is disappointing. When the 3D effect works, it works far better than any 3D film most of you have seen... which is sad that this is the only franchise that has used 3D to its full effect. In the hands of someone else, this could've been one hell of an entertaining film. Instead, we can only dream about the film that could've been.

However, if we get a Step Up 5, can we just ditch the love story and get a film where Moose just dances across the USA in 3D?