RE: This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff
05-20-2013, 04:26 AM
I think I've realized what bothers me about the Step Up movies. I haven't seen or read the synopsis of the fourth one, but I'm just going to see if I can predict the plot:
A, who is a talented dancer, is picked up by some form of dance crew in order to defeat another dance crew, who are both unilaterally evil and in some form of power position which they will later use to exert an unfair advantage for themselves or an unfair disadvantage against A's team. A may be reluctant to join the dance crew, or reluctant to acknowledge their own talent, or they may be fighting against the expectations put on them by society/family/etc. There are several heats throughout the movie where some outsourced dancers showcase their styles against A's team and invariably lose, leading up to THE FINAL SHOWDOWN in which both the EVIL CREW and A'S CREW battle for EVERYTHING ON THE LINE and then A wins, some pithy platitude is said, wrap up loose ends, roll credits.
/me goes to look up synopsis
Okay, that wasn't incredibly close.
>_<
BUT THE POINT I AM MAKING is that there is a unilaterally evil or antagonistic force in the films after the first one; in Step Up 2 it's THE EVIL BLACK CREW WHOSE NAME I CANNOT REMEMBER, in 3 it's THE EVIL CREW WHO HAS A BANKER IN IT, and in 4 it's...a building developer. Who sadly doesn't dance. It makes the plot somewhat...hackneyed and predictable, I guess. Nice dances, but it just isn't the same as the first one.
That said, I loved the first one. It did drag on a bit, but I'm very fond of combining classical and modern music, and the first Step Up did it IN DANCE! AS WELL! On top of that, the protagonist's journey doesn't have a unilateral evil antagonist: instead, the antagonist is Tyler's own sense of helplessness and lack of ambition; the bad guy is himself, telling himself that he's a victim of society; it's just something that you don't really see these days since the public is seemingly incapable of complex thought. Sigh.
That was a good movie. The rest, not so much.
A, who is a talented dancer, is picked up by some form of dance crew in order to defeat another dance crew, who are both unilaterally evil and in some form of power position which they will later use to exert an unfair advantage for themselves or an unfair disadvantage against A's team. A may be reluctant to join the dance crew, or reluctant to acknowledge their own talent, or they may be fighting against the expectations put on them by society/family/etc. There are several heats throughout the movie where some outsourced dancers showcase their styles against A's team and invariably lose, leading up to THE FINAL SHOWDOWN in which both the EVIL CREW and A'S CREW battle for EVERYTHING ON THE LINE and then A wins, some pithy platitude is said, wrap up loose ends, roll credits.
/me goes to look up synopsis
Okay, that wasn't incredibly close.
>_<
BUT THE POINT I AM MAKING is that there is a unilaterally evil or antagonistic force in the films after the first one; in Step Up 2 it's THE EVIL BLACK CREW WHOSE NAME I CANNOT REMEMBER, in 3 it's THE EVIL CREW WHO HAS A BANKER IN IT, and in 4 it's...a building developer. Who sadly doesn't dance. It makes the plot somewhat...hackneyed and predictable, I guess. Nice dances, but it just isn't the same as the first one.
That said, I loved the first one. It did drag on a bit, but I'm very fond of combining classical and modern music, and the first Step Up did it IN DANCE! AS WELL! On top of that, the protagonist's journey doesn't have a unilateral evil antagonist: instead, the antagonist is Tyler's own sense of helplessness and lack of ambition; the bad guy is himself, telling himself that he's a victim of society; it's just something that you don't really see these days since the public is seemingly incapable of complex thought. Sigh.
That was a good movie. The rest, not so much.
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