My thoughts of the film compared to past dance films

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2006)

I keep it real in my critique!! This how I felt..
1) Overall- Step Up was cool. It had likable characters. The character "Mac", Tatum's best friend in the film was the realest to me. It's like I've met him before. The dancing was hot. In the very beginning the ballet mixed with street was so hot! I loved how they showed both styles. Some dance moves were even similar. It's funny how both dance styles went with the music too. The last dance piece at the end of the film was an interesting mix of dance. I loved it.
2. The main characters.
Clearly "Nora" Jenna Dewan's character is a professional trained dancer unlike Julia Styles who trained for that role. I like both main characters in this case. But dancer wise, I HAVE TO GIVE UP TO JENNA SHE WAS GREAT!! Channing Tatum's personality came alive on film. He was funny with good sense of humor.
As for dancing..he's not that great of a dancer, he's JUST OKAY. Every time I thought he was going to do something really amazing, he let me down. His back handspring in the middle of the dance floor was sloppy and no form to it. That particular scene in the club was cool except Tanning really didn't grasp charisma as I expected.
I've seen ton of b-boys that would knock Tatum out in the first round of the battle. He was okay though.
But Step up was more enjoyable. Save the Last Dance comes in second. The death of the character "Skinny" in Step up was NO surprise! The moment he started getting in trouble in the beginning of the film, I thought "He's going to die, if not NOW then later on." Some character in the hood ALWAYS have to die. The way Skinny died made no sense, he looked really stupid. At least back in the day in the film, Boyz N' the Hood Morris Chestnut's character died without it being his fault it was more tragic. Skinny's silly actions got him killed.
If you're going to kill of a likable funny character at least let him go with some sense.
FOR THE RECORD SAVE THE LAST DANCE WAS NOT THE FIRST INTERRACIAL FILM WHERE TWO DANCERS MEET FROM 2 COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WORLDS OF DANCE..IT WAS BREAKIN' 1984. Ozone the b-boy meets contemporary dancer Kelly.
It was street life meets privileged life. Done way before Save the Last Dance and Step up!! Classic films like Beat Street and Breakin' are too good to be categorized with modern movies today like Save the Last dance, Step Up and especially Honey.