Step Up

Last week we saw Step Up 2 and this week, Step Up. Even before seeing the first movie I was disappointed with the second. The scene at the beginning and the scene at the end were good, everything in the middle, not really. The feeling I got was that the movie was made for ten year olds.

Step Up was very well done. I really liked the sequence in the beginning, portraying the difference between ballet and street dancing. The scene where Tyler walks through the school does a great job of showing this kid who's in an element that's completely foreign to him. I got the sense of him walking though sort of a museum, looking at the other students, with them not seeing him. As opposed to the second movie, the first movie had a believable storyline, the character interaction was smooth and the scenes flowed naturally instead of jumping here and there. The characters didn't spontaneously change their nature like in the second movie, but when change was needed, it was gradual and believable. The behavior of the director of the school and her interaction with the main character was a lot more believable and natural then what happened in the second movie. One mistake that they made in the second movie, I believe, was having the same person being the director and the teacher. The interaction between the main character and his original friends was also a lot more believable than in Step Up 2. The relationship between them is clearly shown and their reaction to the main character's dancing is understandable and doesn't appear as selfish as it does in the second movie.

The first movie was good from the beginning and until the end. The second movie, watch the beginning and the end and skip the rest.