An OK movie, but fails to deliver the dancing

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2006)

I've been looking forward to this movie for the whole summer. Being a hip-hop dancer, I am the first in line to see any dance related movie. I never go in expecting Oscar worthy performances and the only realistic thing I expect is hot dancing. "Step Up" was no exception. I expected an average performance at best with a good mix of hip hop dance and music. However, for those with the same expectations as mine, beware. Although there is dancing in the movie, and it is decent, there isn't much of it. There is only one real scene of hip-hop showmanship. The others last about 10-15 seconds at most. I'm guessing the director wanted to put the story and the characters at the forefront and use dancing to enhance the chemistry, similar to Save the Last Dance. Sadly, as expected, the story and the characters are delivered in a typical substandard form and fail to achieve the said "save the last dance" chemistry. The dancing, which should have been the focus as in other dance movies, is instead left lagging behind in screen time. Overall, the movie is decent and it may still be worth seeing it for the little dancing that there is because it's still hot. Do not expect non-stop dancing action with filler story. Since this movie failed to impress even me, and I usually have low standards when it comes to dance movies, I give it a 6. "Take the lead" blows this out of the water.