This is the kind of movie (especially since it's the fifth in a series) that you probably know whether you'll like it or not. It brings nothing new to the table, but makes no pretensions about trying to. For fans of the series, it's probably a "comfort food" kind of film. For everyone else, it manages to mostly accomplish what it sets out to do, but isn't worth a trip to the theater.
The film's choreography is quite good--probably the most important factor for a lot of people. It's possible, maybe even likely, that those with more dance knowledge than I would be able to criticize aspects of it, but as a layman I found it energetic and entertaining. That's a good thing, too, since so much of the film is spent dancing.
When the dancing stops, though, things start to get a little more dicey. The plot is nothing new--it's a dance movie about a big dance competition. It's also full of almost nothing but clichés. Some of them do work better than others as long as you don't mind rolling your eyes a little bit. It mostly seems to depend on how committed the actors are to the scene. Even if a moment is clichéd, if the actors take it seriously, it's easy for the audience to do so, too. The problems start when the actors seem to know they're just acting out a tired trope that's been used time and time again. For the most part, the film has a pretty good average at selling its clichés, but when it misses it misses hard.
This movie is nothing special, but I did enjoy myself, even if it ran a little long. I was happy to see it for free with my Movie Pass, but if I were paying out of pocket, I'd have spent my money elsewhere.
C
No comments:
Post a Comment