Step Up Revolution

This is part of a group of movies called Step Up which has dancing as part of its plot; this is the fourth one and I have not seen any of the others.  The movies often follow a basic formula: the dancers come from urban backgrounds, there is a romantic couple that is divided by the plot of the story, there is some other urban issue, but there is always a happy ending.  And of course, lots of dancing!

In Revolution, the most central character is Sean (Ryan Guzman) whose dayjob is as a waiter at an upscale Miami hotel owned by real estate mogul Bill Anderson (Peter Gallagher). Sean and his friends, which include a few who work with him at the hotel, have an underground flash mob dance group called The Mob. They currently remain anonymous and are trying to win an internet contest by getting the most viewer hits on their videos.

Sean sees a pretty girl at the beach, Emily Anderson (Kathryn McCormick), neither at first knowing their respective connections to Bill Anderson. When Sean learns who her father is, he keeps that fact from his friends, especially when Anderson fires Sean's friend Eddie for being late and Eddie becomes resentful and in a dance segment attacks Anderson as being a fatcat.

Later the friends learn that Anderson is buying up riverside property to develop more hotels, which currently house small businesses by local citizens. The Mob decides to move their target from winning a contest to making a statement, and try to draw attention to the needs of the small business owners and local residents, and sabotage Anderson's meetings about his real estate development.

Eventually the friends find out who Emily and her father are. Sean finds it hard to choose sides. Adding to Emily's dilemma is her father wanting her to pursue a career in the family business but she wants to be a dancer.

There are several dance segments, and although the actors in the lead roles are decent dancers, it is the background and mostly unnamed mob friends who are the better dancers. (The actress playing Emily is not a very good dancer, which plays into the plot.)  As this is a heavily edited movie, the editing doesn't allow you to really view the dances as a long segment nor often as a wide view, but you can still see the physical strength needed and the originality in not only dance steps, but use of the settings in the films--an art museum (dancers blend into the artwork), a restaurant (dancers masquerading as diners dance on the tables), an office plaza (dancers are dressed the same, with dark business suits), a seaside dock (dancing on train cars and use of trampolines), as well as the more conventional settings like young people dancing on the beach or at a salsa club. The film also begins with a flash mob segment of The Mob overtaking a busy street by causing a traffic jam.

Although the lead actors are Caucasian, the film tries to be internationally casted by having many actors of color in the supporting cast of dancers. As I said previously the storylines are weak but the dancing is well done.