Enjoyable

Rating: 6/10 (20 July 2012)

'Step Up' is primarily a dance film with some great dance sequences included. A lot of people therefore criticise the acting in this film because it is pretty poor from most of the performers.
With Channing Tatum it's difficult; sometimes his acting can be terrible, his face hardly shows any expression at all in some scenes and his dialogue is wooden. However, in other scenes - particularly with his adopted little sister - he acts fantastically and gives a real-life performance that seems so natural. He acts best in long discussions with people. Jenna Dewan (now Jenna Dewan-Tatum) is good, not great. She's a professional dancer so you cannot expect her to be outstanding at acting because it simply is not her profession. She isn't bad though, I certainly would not say her acting performance was bad, just not great. Her dancing is of course the best in the film, Tatum is really good too.
The story is not that great, it's too clichéd as is the case with a lot of films about dancing. There are some moments where you think the story could have been a lot better if they had worked on key points. They bring in important themes to the film such as living a life of crime, youth tragedies, crime taking over neighbourhoods but they don't explain or spread these themes out enough for them to take a hold on the film meaning the themes are half-explained and you're given a 'happy' ending whilst you have all of these questions unanswered.
Overall, the film is enjoyable. I would recommend it if you like this sort of film, it's a decent film to watch if you just want to eat popcorn but don't expect anything outstanding.