I wanted to type a quick review for Born To Dance, I recently purchased it on Ebay from a place in Australia as I've been a fan of Parris and the Palace since 2010 and just couldn't wait!
I'm really unsure where to start with this as I have a love / hate relationship with the movie, don't get me wrong, its still tons better than all Step Up movies, but I feel as if it lacks in some places. One thing that concerns me especially with things like ABDC or the Got Talent series is cutting away from the routine to see things like judge and audience reactions, and the movie had quite a lot of that during "nationals" towards the end, I am curious why Parris went with the HHI type of story line~
Another thing that kind of got me is, usually in movies like step up, there's a lot of story line between each dance routine, but this had a battle at the beginning, some rehearsal stuff and then ALOT (perhaps too much) dancing towards the end, all of which I wish was longer, which may sound odd saying its too much but I want more, what I mean is that it should have been spread out throughout the movie and also the routines should have been a bit longer than 1 minute.
I really liked the story line, so props to Parris for it, Tia's not the best actor but he did well enough to keep me engaged in the movie, the real surprise was Onyeka, when seeing youtube stuff in the past, or even when I went to see Skulls and Crowns in Barking last year, Onyeka seems like the sort that is very, whats the word, I wanna say bitch, but in a good way? I guess she seems like the type of person you don't wanna mess with, but it was surprising because her relationship with "Tu" was kind of cute, and I she seems like a really good actor, and the name calling she was throwing at Tu was fun.
Kyra, also a bitch, when she pushed past the one girl when the dude was saying who was in K Crew, I thought "Damn, Kyra you bitch" she talks with her eyes I guess, I remember calling her "crazy eyes" with Sorority's 2013 routine as soon as those masks come up over the face and she stares into the crowd, and the sdnz routine when she's "gone with the wind fabulous" Kerrington was also a pretty good actor, OH and I loved Mikey in this, again not the best of actors but, he's cute and his character is like that guy that everyone wants to be friends with and loves, and I loved his story of the other guy having problems with "Tino's" sexuality~ when he came for Mikey, and Mikey got him in an arm lock, I was like FUCK YES!!! that was awesome, so props again to Parris for this part of storyline.
So I guess I'll go into the routines, the first battle, It seemed as if picture was a little off sync during this battle in some places, maybe too much switching between the camera's and stuff, the rehearsals too, when some of them were dancing, I wondered what they were dancing to, I think it was around the part where people are showing off their moves for "K Crew" and the O'neil twins were dancing and I wondered what they were dancing to, I also noticed Kiel's piece for "No Flex Zone" was used for the track that "Queen Bee" Kyra was dancing to, so I felt that was a little lazy to not use new material.
Neon Faction - Bill Gates
This is a catchy song, the routine was pretty good, it had that sort of choreo that brotherhood use at HHI each year, I really enjoyed it.
K-Crew - Ayo
I really didn't like the thing with the hood when Tu was doing it, it seemed pretty cheesey, but K-Crew's version seemed a little bit better, though its still a bit silly imho when they're holding the sides and just going in and out with the build up of the song, there was some krump but not much happening other than that.
Freaks vs 2PK - Not Many (The Remix)
This was a pretty good routine, though the whole part with Tu cutting them down the middle seemed a bit cheesey, but other than that, I liked it.
K-Crew - Semi final (unsure of the song name)
I guess I'll call this "click click click click ehhhhh" I loved the popping / robotics in this routine but, it literally lasts 45 seconds and 33 seconds of it is sound effects, again, too short, way too short and I feel as if theres not enough music in the routine, the choreo itself when the dubstep part starts reminds me of that choreo we see from Identity at HHI, but the camera is zoomed in way too much to see what else is going on in the routine so for me, it didn't make much sense.
Imminence - Its Ovah
Ok, can I just say how disappointed with the lack of Kiel, Todd and Joseph in this movie, when seeing the trailer, I was expecting to see more of them, this routine was pretty fun, it was gay, I loved it, but didn't last too long, the song itself is a little ehhhhh, meh? but the routine was fierce, hot, sexy.
Infamous - Semi final
No idea what this song was, but... wondering where Parris had gone, was she kicked from the crew? she was there earlier for the routine in the club to "Let It Go" this routine was pretty good, but when they were doing the sexy thing with their hips, again the camera panned away to some guy in the crowd.
2 Freaky - Two Times A Charm
I really liked this routine because Mikey got to be in charge of the girls, but some of the angles, I didn't get the opening with the one guy running towards the camera, then running back, but loved the rest of the routine, the O'neil twins dancing, is that the same choreo from their rehearsals over at K-crews studio? I'm unsure, this song too, good, but odd good perhaps?
K-Crew - Fresh
This song is bangin' I really like it, I think this camera angle in the opening works with the guy and the face paint, I think it should have zoomed out a bit quicker when more things started to happen, again I was a little let down when Kyra was walking on the guys backs and there wasn't much else happening apart from "walk walk walk walk" and then at some point Kyra does something kind of cool looking with her hands in the air, but the camera cuts her hands off so~
2 Freaky - Baddest
Didn't think too much of the drum solo at the beginning, the routine was good though, it had that royal fam dance hall stuff and some of that "little movements says it all" thing, I didn't think much of the lighting at the beginning with Kaea, but yea, the bottles were good, the whole routine was pretty spot on.
Extras:
So at some point, I did wonder whether this Bluray was a fake or not, mainly because the menu fonts weren't too great and was a little confusing, when going to subtitles, it was english, or off, but the only way to get off of this part of the menu was to scroll down passed off to get back to the menu, turning it off? how do I know whether its going to be on or off when clicking doesn't inform me whether it is or not? in the Extra's part we have a trailer, featurette, screening with cast~
There wasn't enough in the extra's to be honest, but I noticed in the featurette that that was a clip where Kerrington was dancing and Kiel and Todd were to her left and right, I thought I had missed something at the end of the movie after the credits, but there was nothing, so it left me wondering where this routine was, also extra's should have had 1 shot camera's of each routine, like in those j-pop music videos, sometimes they'll have a close up shot and sometimes a "dance shot version" so again, I was a little disappointed where I had thought there would be some cool extra's.
If Parris does decide to make another movie in the future, I hope she gets camera angles right, doesn't cut away from routines and remembers to include something cool in extra's, Also want to say, I mentioned earlier there wasn't enough Kiel, there also wasn't enough Parris, she did such a great job in Step Up All In with her acting, she was funny, so thats another thing to include, more of yourself!
Hope this review doesn't offend / upset anyone~
~Aar
