Step Up 2 (as it shall henceforth be called) goes in the exact opposite direction, in which the dancing dominates to such a degree that the plot becomes episodic, almost to the point of being irrelevant.Īs with the first film, there is a certain amount of pleasure to be gained from these set-pieces. The end result was hardly The Red Shoes, but is was a film in which the dancing served the plot, rather than the other way around.
#List of all step up movies series#
In Step Up, you had a series of dance set-pieces which were integrated reasonably well within the dramatic storyline. What is in doubt is his ability to tie those dance moves to a story which is both interesting in its own right and told in an interesting way. His love of dancing is never in doubt, and nor is his ability to give his performers room within the camera to express themselves. Chu's first commercial hit, which would lead him to direct the sequel to this and produce the following two instalments. Part of the reason for this disappointment is the director. While the results are not as disappointing as perhaps you might expect, it still fails to match the standard set by the first film. Its only connections to the first film are the Maryland School of the Arts and the brief, inconsequential appearance by Channing Tatum. Step Up 2: The Streets did not have to suffer the same, persisting ignominy of a straight-to-video release, but it does attempt the same kind of base trick.
Straight-to-video sequels are notorious for how tangential their relationship is to the originals: American Psycho 2, for instance, centres on a girl who stabs Patrick Bateman after he murders her babysitter. A common tactic when making sequels is to repeat the same story arc as the first film, but with a character who is in some way related to or connected with the original protagonists.