Same ol' dance

Like a true sequel, “Step Up 2 The Streets” is basically the same as the original “Step Up,” but the main character from the original movie (Channing Tatum) who made it such a success barely appears in this one. A troublesome teen named Andie (Briana Evigan) from the inner city who has dance moves is given an opportunity to dance at a professional school. Following genre conventions, Andie finds love and gets rejected by her original friends, and because of this, she is forced to form another dance crew to compete in the streets.
The only major difference the sequel has from the first one is that the lead character is a woman this time, with the focus shifting mainly to dance crews and not an individual.
This is not the sort of movie you go to see for the cinematic aspect, but it is a lot of fun to watch if you want to be thrilled and awed by high-flying flips, splits, kicks and head spins. The acting abilities of the young cast are questionable, but the dancing in the movie is phenomenal. Director Jon Chu, in his feature debut, does a great job at keeping the audience engaged through the cast members’ talents as dancers, even though the movie would not stand a chance without the music and dancing.
Throughout the whole movie, characters are battling with the need to be accepted because of their dance style. The “street” dancers fight to be the best in unorganized dance, but those students that do it on a professional level at school want to be respected by everyone as dancers, whether they hail from the streets or Julliard.
Overall, the movie is entertaining. It does its part in delivering an action-packed fun-filled dance adventure of a movie, but it lacks substance. It follows all the dance-movie cliches, with its angry teens who use dance as the only way they feel they can express themselves and then finally realize that dancing makes them happy, right before they find a true love at the movie’s end.
Along with this conventional plot, Evigan barely shows she can dance with the best of them. She has a pretty face but fails to prove she can dance – or act, for that matter. If you are going to see this movie, go for the aesthetics. If you plan to see a movie that will stimulate your mind, you won’t find it here, but you will find dance moves on top of dance moves that definitely will not disappoint. “Step Up 2 the Streets” may be typical, but it is still fun to watch.