Step Up Revolution

Movie Review: «Step Up Revolution».

English Title: Step Up 4: Miami Heat.
Production: USA, 2012.
Release Date: 17.07.2012 (USA), 26.07.2012 (Netherlands).
Russian Distributor: West Video (26.07.2012).
Official Website:
Genres: 3D / Dance / Melodrama / Musical / Romance / Sequel.
Director: Scott Speer.
Starring: Ryan Guzman, Kathryn McCormick, Peter Gallagher.
Running Time: 99 minutes.

The most notable part of Step Up Revolution is its choreography and staged dances. The band’s flash mobs unfold in surprising places, such as a local port or inside the City Council building. At some point, the dancers forget about competition moving on to express their feelings about homes being taken away by ruthless businessmen. The great looking shows take place in an Art Gallery and inside the City Hall. They both are spectacular, crowded and feature intense dynamics, reflecting coordinated efforts for all members of group and even minor extras.

Director of the film is Scott Speer, who has been making music videos for various artists for a long time. Once he even got an award from MTV Video Music Awards Latin America in 2007 for his work with the Bella Traición (2007) clip for Belinda. Real name of the operator nicknamed Crash is Karsten Gopinath, and before this movie he was also shooting shorts and music videos. The screen is filled with vivid colors depicting the entourage of Miami: the beaches, streets, a romantic sunset, water surface in the night and all shoreline shots are attached as well. However, the filmmakers were unable to uncover the 3D-potential for a such a movie to a full extent. A pack of flying banknotes and dancing sparks are all you can expect out of 1,5 hours of wearing the 3D-glasses absorbing too much light out of the image.

Soundtrack of the Step Up Revolution film is composed by Aaron Zigman, who wrote the music for the Sex and the City (2008-2010) dilogy. His melodies were enriched by a pack of new summer dance tracks such as Bad Girls (2012) by M.I.A., Bring It Back (2011) by Travis Porter, Dance Without You (2011) by Skylar Grey, Goin ‘In (2012) by Jennifer Lopez (J. Lo), Hands in the Air (2012) by Timbaland, I Don’t Like You (2012) by Eva Simmons with Let’s Go (2012) from the Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. Obviously, prevailing music styles here are Hip-Hop, Rap and other street dance music, including a set of remixes brought by one famous music producer named Ricky Luna.

GameScope Verdict

Step Up Revolution looks like a business card of the Miami resort. Hot beaches, cheerful music and catchy dances make fourth part quite a decent show, especially for most loyal fans of the series. However, the story, characters, definitely, lack exciting depth and twists, merely serving as a tool to unite together good dance shows, where the 3D-presentation doesn’t bring anything new for a dance film of such type.

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Step Up Revolution Film Trailer

Movie Score by GameScope:

8.0 / 10