Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A tight-knit group of New York City street dancers, including Luke and Natalie, team up with NYU freshman Moose, and find themselves pitted against the world's best hip-hop dancers in a high-stakes showdown that will change their lives forever.
Step Up 3D is best remembered for its groundbreaking use of stereoscopic 3D cinematography in dance sequences, with director Jon Chu delivering some genuinely spectacular visual choreography that pushed the format's possibilities — water scenes in particular are stunning. The plot is formulaic even by the series' modest standards, with thin character arcs and predictable conflict resolution. Acting is serviceable but unremarkable across the board. Novelty gets a modest bump for the ambitious 3D execution and the street-dance-meets-battle-competition energy, which feels more kinetic than typical entries in the franchise. The ending delivers the expected crowd-pleasing dance battle but does so with enough visual flair to satisfy fans of the genre.