MARRIED TO THE FLASH MOB

There is, presumably, a socioeconomic as well as a choreographic connotation to the title Step Up. The series of dance movies, which began in 2006, is about struggling urban youths using hip-hop and break-dancing to escape “The Street.”

Opening today is the fourth film, Step Up: Revolution. It’s set in Miami, and focuses on “flash mobs,” the vogue for attempting to turn real life into a movie musical. Our hero Sean (Ryan Guzman) and his buddy Eddy (Misha Gabriel), waiters at an upscale beach hotel, lead a large, semi-surreptitious, racially-mixed dance crew called “The Mob” in elaborate public performances—on the street, at an art gallery opening, in an office building’s lobby. The Mob is trying to win an online contest, though it looks like the production materials, costuming and work hours that would go into each number would pretty much negate the cash prize.

Trouble rears its head before anyone figures this out anyway, in the form of rich girl Emily (Kathryn McCormick) an aspiring classical dancer with whom Sean falls in love. Emily joins The Mob, and encourages them to turn their performances into protest art against the plans of a skunky developer (Peter Gallagher) to raze their neighborhood. But Sean neglects to tell Eddy or any of his pals that Emily is the developer’s daughter.

In short, the plot of Step Up: Revolution is as insipid as that of any Beach Party movie. Unlike a Beach Party movie, however, the tone is very sober and lacking in (intentional) comedy.

But so what? It’s a dance movie; all that finally matters is if the dance numbers are any good. And they are, in a slick, Super-Bowl-commercial sort of way. They would be better if the music was better, but most of it is just techno-crap in support of the leaping around.

Said leaping around is pretty mesmerizing at times, though. The synchronized acrobatic athleticism on display is remarkable, so much so, indeed, that I found myself wondering if it might have been digitally enhanced. I would be disappointed to learn that it was, but in any case it’s fun to watch. For a while.

One number is singularly unfortunate in its timing, however: The Mob crashes the developer’s fancy party, and the performance opens with gas canisters tossed into crowd, after which the dancers enter dressed in black, wearing gas masks. After Aurora, this may not go over big with moviegoers.