I get your point, but was that part about the actress with an image link really necessary? She just looks normal, and to say someone with her looks can't be poor is a stretch. And "whitest white girls" ... I knew a girl at school who fit that definition much better. She looked pure Aryan with really pale skin, blue eyes, light blonde hair ... and yet, she was actually first-generation Turkish, though you would never suspect it from her appearance alone.
It's a minor thing, but it does feel really out-of-place in an otherwise well-written review.
I do think it's a really important failing of the film that Andie doesn't look like she fits in (or acts like it), because it makes a lot of the threads of the film feel fake. It creates the "us versus them" atmosphere and that might have been defused if she did fit in with the people she was supposed to be friends with at the start.
If you were to guess whether she was part of the Dance Academy or the street dance gang purely on looks, you would instantly say Dance Academy.
And this wasn't a problem the first film had, Channing Tatum convincingly felt more at home around his friends and looked out of place at the dance academy.
I don't want to be picking on the actor though, so I'll remove the link and try to reword it a little bit.
For those of you curious for what was originally written Part of the problem is the protagonist, Andie is meant to be from a poor area herself - but the actress is one of the whitest white girls◊ you'll ever see.
Sorry for spamming this up with another comment, but I realised that I want to stress that it's not that the actress is bad. When she returns for Step Up 5 for example as the wise professional, she almost carries the film. She was just miscast in 2.
OK, I got your point.
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Step Up 2 - Class Traitor
Step Up 2 is a sequel to the advertising of Step Up, not the actually film. It's weird just how quickly the franchise becomes it's own legend. The film really serves as an example of just how powerful marketing is in shaping the world it's meant to sell.
Step Up was a surprisingly sincere film
, focused entirely on its story instead of spectacle. Step Up 2 is not.
There's no slow shift through the franchise either. Step Up 2 is not a half way point between the depth of Step Up and the ludicrousness of Step Up 3. Step Up 2 is a fully fledged ludicrous dance film. There's a big competition that they're competing for with very unclear rules and as many rounds as the writers can think of inventive dances. The heroes need to win the Big Competition to Save The Day. When they're not part of the competition they're going to underground dance-offs to do some more dancing.
It's beautiful, stunning and utterly dumb.
And you know what? That's not a bad thing, these are fantastic films to appreciate the awe-inspiring talent on display. Sometimes art is just creating and enjoying something being really pretty.
The problem with Step Up 2 is it's a betrayal of Step Up. Step Up was an examination of class can conspire to keep someone from being all they can be and stop them from breaking out of the poverty trap.
Step Up 2 is about the challenges of being very rich, in that people who are less rich unfairly bar you from Being All You Can Be.
Step Up was about an urban kid trying to get into a very posh Dance Academy, Step Up 2 is about the people from the very posh Dance Academy trying to compete in a street dance competition braving all the prejudices of the urban kids. Step Up 2 literally has an angry and violent black dude as the bad guy.
Part of the problem is the protagonist, Andie is meant to be from a poor area herself - but she's much more convincing as a dance academy student than someone who grew up in her neighbourhood. Maybe if they'd got some who could fit in and feel like that's where they come from, then the themes of the film might be less squicky and maybe even transform into something better.
But as it stands Step Up 2 is a beautiful film but dumb in an ugly way.