Writer: Lai Swee Wei

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Watch this if you liked: Step Up”, “Step Up 2: The Streets”, “Rent”

Filmmaker Jon Chu, who previously made "Step Up 2: The Streets", delivers yet another dazzling and energetic piece in "Step Up 3D" with compelling use of 3D format. The film suffers from no shortcomings vital enough to put a stop as one of this year's most vibrant and entertaining films to catch! Needless to say, teens or those who enjoy the art of dancing will find the experience worth the price hike.

"Step Up"'s Camille (Alyson Stoner) and "Step Up 2: The Streets"' Moose (Adam G. Sevani) are recast as inseparable best friends and incoming NYU freshmen. During their orientation day, Moose gets involved in a dance off at a nearby park and impresses onlooker Luke (Rick Malambri) who labels him as a BFAB (Born From A Boombox) and adopts him into their ethnically diverse dance team known as the Pirates. However, pro-dancer Moose isn't the only new recruit that day, as foxy clubber Natalie (Sharni Vinson) quickly captures Luke's attention. They live in Luke's Brooklyn warehouse loft that is the ultimate dance studio complete with a massive collection of stacked boomboxes and a huge wall of shoes. However as fate would have it, the warehouse is on the verge of being sold to their rivals, the Samurai if they don't win the upcoming dance competition in order to gain money and pay off the overdue rent.

Apart from the melodrama, the quality of dance entertainment here definitely takes a step up (pun intended) from its predecessors. The dance choreography is ever-more-elaborate, without failing to deliver new moves that will leave you breathless. While the earlier picture climaxed with a dance routine in the rain, this time we're given a few more eye-opening sequences involving powder, water and LED light jackets (though horridly ugly in style). Moreover, we see a diverse bunch of dance styles such as tap, breaking, popping, locking, masquerade-ball tango, ballet, capoeira, and the anticipated robot-dance (highlighted in trailer).

In midst of all that hardcore break dancing and stomping, it also includes a charming interlude shot within a single take between Stoner and Sevani as they dance on the street of Manhattan, exuding a classic musical scene ala Gene Kelly's 1952 "Singin' In The Rain" (minus the rain). A handful of previous "Step Up 2" MSA dancers are also seen collaborating with this new Pirates crew.

The movie audaciously maximises the in-your-face advantages of 3D, showering audiences with balloons, bubbles, raindrops, and dancers thrusting their arms forward into the viewer's personal space.

Although the film opened with US$15.8 million at US weekend box office, significantly less than "Step Up" (US$20.7 million) and "Step Up 2: The Streets" (US$18.9 million), it nonetheless delivers mind-blowing, energetic routines with a solid soundtrack.

Cinema Online, 20 August 2010