For some reason I got hooked onto the theme song of Step-Up 2 (Low by Flo. Rider), so I finally decided to check out Step-Up.



In a nutshell

The story of Step Up is simple enough and quite typical of a dance-themed movie - Tyler was an underpriviledged teenager living in a foster home in one of the poorest, most troubled Afro-American neighbourhoods of Baltimore. However, more than just an aimless adolescent, Tyler was also an avid street dancer. One night, after being chased out of an underground club for dancing provocatively with a gangster's girlfriend, Tyler and his best friends (Mac and Mac's little brother, Skinny) found themselves breaking and entering a school. Seeing how the building was adorned with rich architectural styles with displays of numerous awards, the trio grew disgruntled with the priviledges these 'rich kids' had. Hence, in part due to their playfulness, Tyler, Mac and Skinny proceeded to mess around with the elaborate props on stage, causing some serious damage. During the rampage, Tyler was caught and sentenced to 200 hours of commuity service at the school where he had vandalised - The Maryland School for the Arts.

There, he met a Nora, a classically-trained modern dance student of the school. Nora came from a financially comfortable single-parent, but was at that point of time growing increasingly uptight over her coming senior dance showcase. If she fails, she'll have to give up her dream of being a profssional dancer and go back to college, as what her mother had told her. To make matters worse, her dance partner injured himself and she was unable to find a replacement who could manage her choreography. After watching how Nora's audition for potential replacements had ended in frustration, Tyler offered to try out "just to help", knowing that she had once seen him street-dance with his friends. Though hesitant at first, Nora eventually realized that Tyler was the only one who was capable of handling the choreography.

Creative and romantic sparks flew as Tyler's hip-hop styles blended seamlessly with Nora's modern dance techniques. Would the union stand the test of their starkly different life experiences?

The Review

IMDB.com rated Step Up with a mere 5.9 at the time of this review, and various sources indicated that Step Up garnered mainly lukewarm reviews. After watching the movie, I'm not sure if it deserved a score as low as that. In fact, I might go over the line to even say that for all it's limitations, Step Up is actually, to say the very least, an above-average movie experience.

The story

You probably can't complain about the lack of depth to the storyline because it is never meant to be that serious in the first place. In fact, the story reminded me a lot of Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights (see the bottom for why).

Still, basic run-in-the-mill storyline aside, the presentation of the story in Step Up was quite nice, really. While Dirty Dancing 2 had loads of potential in expanding the story to something deeper (since it was set during the Cuban Revolution), it unfortunately chose to only stay on a very superficial level. In Step Up, characters are slightly more complex, and the whole feel to the movie is less romanticized than in Dirty Dancing 2, which makes it easier for audiences to relate to. Still rather superficial, but there are nevertheless elements about the story that makes it real. More will be explained later on.

The dancing

Being a dance-themed movie, the dancing certainly doesn't disappoint. To put it simply, the dancing was breathtaking. There is something about good dance choreography and performance in movies, be it hip-hop, modern dance, lindy-hop, or Latin ballroom, that truly excites me. In the movie, Channing Tatum, who played Tyler, executed such sleek and precise hip-hop moves that awed me to bits. Gravity-defying stunts aside, simply watching him do that perfect body-roll was a real treat. Jenna Dewan, who played Nora, danced with such gracefulness and style. When Tyler-meets-Nora, the modern dance gets infused with hip-hop and vice versa, cumulating into the spectacular dance showcase towards the end of the movie. A very very entertaining performance indeed!


If all else fails, at least it has the wonderful dance choreography to fall back on. That said, some credit has to be given to the screenwriters for their efforts particularly with the characters. I'll explain further...

The characters

I think one of the things that struck me most about the movie was how the portrayal of Tyler as a troubled rebel was rather accurate. While it was indeed an incredibly cleaned-up version (I mean come on, no smoking and no vulgarities from Tyler and his brudders?), the angst and feelings of failure and hopelessness behind the tough facade rings true for many at-risk youths. While little is spoken about Tyler's background, from the movie one may guess that since a tender age, Tyler must have been through some form of disappointment, loss or pain before arriving at where he was. Which was why when Tyler mentioned confided to Nora about how he didn't have a goal because he had learnt not to have any expectations, it didn't sound cheesy at all. This would have been the kind of coping mechanisms such a youth would possess. This also explains why early on in the movie after Nora chided him for being late for rehearsal, he gave up immediately, quickly convincing himself that that proves that he is not capable of doing such an important thing.

That was how the writers made me root for the charater of Tyler Gage. To watch him taste success in small doses through working with Nora and befriending other MSA students such as Miles and Lucy was such an engaging journey. All because you knew that these were precisely the things that would finally lead him to take his first step out of that cycle of failure.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the character of Nora. Whilst adequately interesting, her character falls into the same family-friendly category of the middle-class girl who has a passion for the arts that her parents do not appreciate, plus a (good-looking) boyfriend whom she breaks up with over differences in morals and ideals. In fact, Nora looked like she could have walked right out from the set of High School Musical. On it's own, this isn't a bad thing because it does seem like Step Up was marketed to cater to the almost same audience of tweens to teens who went crazy over HSM, except maybe a slightly matured lot. However, after having watched the near-gritty introduction of Tyler and his life, the introduction of Nora in the HSM-like environment was like a sudden shift from reality to fantasy.

The other HSM element to Nora was also her best friend - a confident and pretty African-American girl who egged the relationship between Nora and Tyler on. A nice side-story about her developing relationship with Miles, though her character was largely that of a stereotypical 'female best friend'.

Miles, who was first introduced as one of Nora's friends, was a nice inclusion to the main cast. Miles, an African-American music student, was probably the first MSA student to acknowledge Tyler who was fulfiling his community service as a jaunitor at the school. The fact that Miles also came from a troubled neighbourhood (same as Mac's in fact, as Tyler would comment) but has now gained success as a student at a prestigous school probably served as a reflection of the other options Tyler had in life despite a difficult background. This relationship between Miles and Tyler was largely unexplored , although there were hints here and there about how there is a mutual respect and appreciation for each other's talents and personalities. Then again, you can't really have the best of both worlds, espcially when the movie poster has already prepared you by featuring only the male and female leads looking lovingly into each other's eyes.

Then there's also the side story with Mac and Skinny, the brothers whom Tyler hung out with. A very nice complement to the character of Tyler as they represented the life that Tyler wanted to get away from. These were not bad people but were instead very protective of one another and their friendship. In those circumstances the trio made stealing cars and facing gun-wielding gangsters as part of their lives. A tragedy that occured among them served as a rude wake-up call, making them realize that they would be living precariously for the rest of their lives if they didn't start doing something about it.

The cast

I refuse to believe that Channing Tatum, who played Tyler, had absolutely no training in dancing prior to this movie. After watching the movie, I searched online for information on the actor, convinced that he was plucked out for his skills in hip-hop, as was Jenna Dewan for her background as a professional dancer. However, all was mentioned was only Tatum as an avid athelete in all sorts of sports. Later, in an interview I found, Tatum confirmed that he had only learnt dancing while filming the movie. I suppose his background as a martial arts practioner gave him the agility and flexibility to handle the stunts in hip-hop dancing, but to be able to dance with such style and attitude with no prior training is really impressive. Gotta give credit to the hip-hop choreographer too.

Dancing aside, I have mixed reaction about Tatum's acting. I suppose much of it was because I wasn't too sure whether his lack of expression was part of his character or just bad acting. One thing though, his mannerisms and even his accent did sound like someone who grew up in a poor and predominantely African-American neighbourhood. Liked the way he interacted with his younger foster siblings too, where he was a nice big-brother figure without making it too mushy. Nevertheless, I felt it was an adequate performance for a movie that isn't meant to be too serious.

Jenna Dewan, of course, is the one who's got the dance training so dancing was not an issue. In fact, from Internet sources Dewan has won numerous dance competitions and has toured with some famous performers in her professional career such as Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, N'Sync etc. Her acting for me is adequate for the movie too, and certainly not as bad as how some reviews have made it out to be.

Another common criticism of the leads' performances was the lack of chemistry between them. In my opinion, they have got to be joking. Perhaps the chemistry is not incredible, but particularly in the scenes where they rehearsed together as a couple, I thought I swore that the two were together in real life as well (in fact, I found out much later that they really did start dating after the filming of Step Up).

The verdict

Folks, it is after all a dance movie. While the story or the acting or the direction might not have been fantastic, Step Up as a dance movie still delivers. In fact, I do find Step Up much more engaging as a whole as compared to other dance-themed movies such as Take The Lead or Durty Dancing 2. At least in Step Up, there was a character that I truly rooted for. And it does help that the dancing showcased in the movie was impressive.

Rating

3 stars out of 5. It's a run-in-the-mill story saved by nice chemistry between the leads, characters that you cared for, and of course the real star of the movie - the dancing.

Interesting comparison

Because Dirty Dancing 2 was another dance movie which I have the deepest impression of, I couldn't help but noticed that there are numerous interesting similarities between them:

- In DD2, Katey, the female lead, comes from a middle-class family, living in a pretigious hotel where all the big shots are at. This is where she meets Javier, the male lead, a poor pool boy who the patrons look down on.
- In SU, Nora comes from a middle-class family, studying at a pretigious school where future artists are born. This is where she meets Tyler, the male lead, a poor, at-risk youth whom the students look down on.

- In DD2, Javier danced only because he enjoyed it and never thought it might take him anywhere. When working with Katey, he brings this element of spontaneity and sensuality to the final dance scene.
- In SU, Tyler danced only because he enjoyed it and never thought it might take him anywhere. When working with Nora, he brings this element of spontaneity to the final dance scene.

- In DD2, there is a montage which shows Javier and Katey rehearsing in various parts, exhibiting the closeness they felt as they danced while playing around.
- In SU, there is a montage which shows Tyler and Nora rehearsing various portions of their dance piece, exhibiting the stong love that felt for each other as they danced while playing around.

- In DD2, Katey had doubts whether she could work with Javier at all.
- In SU, Nora initially had doubts if the collaboration with Tyler would even work at all.

- In DD2, the goal was winning the dance competition to fulfil Katey's passion for dancing and to help Javier seek a better life with the winning prize.
- In SU, the goal was putting up a wonderful senior showcase to fulfil Nora's passion for dancing by being noticed by professional dance companies, and to help Tyler seek a better life by showing himself and the director of MSA that he had talent and was capable of doing something bigger than he previously believed.