Step Up 3-D

Here we have yet another sequel nobody asked for; the summer movie season is nothing if not consistent.  Yet in the case of Step Up 3-D, we have a case of a third part film that's actually a bit better than its predecessors.  Don't get me wrong, the movie itself is ridiculous, and not exactly good, but it's the rare 2010 feature where the 3-D is actually the best thing about it.  The dancing has no purpose, but it is kind of exciting in third dimension form.  There's a sort of joy and exuberant quality in the performances that at least technically seem slightly revelatory.  The problem is that the credited screenwriters felt the need to add a semblance of plot.  It's an old-fashioned cliche-ridden atrocity of the old school variety of "lets put on a show to save the old farm" mentality, here with incoherent 2010 hyper slang to sound relevant and hip to the youngsters.  There's a troupe of the regular types of dancers here, a nice ethnic-conscious group a struggling artists, all attractive and bland as can be.  However, when they shut up and dance, it's a fairly pleasurable experience, enhanced by its 3-D.  The problem with it is that the dance sequences are so repetitive that the novelty wheres off fairly early.  How many 3D-ed showcases of the robot does one film really need.  There's at least three in Step Up 3-D, at least two too many.  They start to feel cold and as un-engaging as the characters or story.  The only sequence that woke me up from the "in your face" moves as the two-minute one cut of our shaggy hero doing a little Singin' in the Rain ditty with the comely girl of his chaste dreams.  It's a corny as Mickey Rooney, but it's got a beating heart, and nice sense of play to it.  Here we have a situation of a film that can't in a way tangible way say is any good at all, but recommend wholeheartedly to the cynics and skeptics perhaps just for the ironic spectacle.  I'd also recommend a couple of beers beforehand.  C