The Step Up films are billed as “one of the most popular dance franchises in film history” and this fourth offering is advertised as taking competition to astonishing new heights.
The film, however, does not live up to the hype with this new offering falling short of the previous three films in the franchise.
As a devote fan of movie about any kind of dance, I felt that the writers had run out of ideas, offering the same basic story in a new setting.
Miami street dancer Sean Asa (Ryan Guzman) moves to Hollywood with visions of fame and fortune, only to discover the almost insurmountable odds of making it in the professional dance world.
Fed up with rejection, his crew – “The Mob” who we met in the previous film – leave him to return to Miami and the fun they had dancing there, he is forced to re-evaluate a career as a professional dancer and takes a janitorial job at Moose’s (a fixture from previous Step Up films and played by Adam G Sevani) grandparents’ dance studio.
That is until he sees an advert for a dance competition in Lag Vegas were the grand prize is a three year show on “the strip”.
Determined to win the competition he gets Moose to help him form a new dance crew.
But when the new dance crew he forms with the beautiful and headstrong Andie West (also a seen in previous movies and played by Briana Evigan) reaches the final rounds of a high-stakes reality TV competition in glittering Las Vegas, he has a shot at finally making his dreams come true—if he can set aside old loyalties and long-time rivalries and just do what he loves most: dance.
It’s a fast paced film with some great dance moves but the story seems stale and, if there is to be a fifth movie, a far more interesting plot is needed.
It also wouldn’t hurt to mix the dancing up a little like they did in the third movie which threw ballet into the mix making for far more interesting dance scenes.
I’m still a fan but I’m hoping for something a little more interesting in the next offering.
