DJ (Columbus Short, Accepted) is a Los Angeles youth moved to Atlanta to live his Aunt Jackie (Valarie Pettiford, Glitter) and his Uncle Nate (Harry J. Lennix, Titus). Carrying a heavy burden regarding a family tragedy involving his beloved younger brother Duron (recording artist Chris Brown), he attends the esteemed Truth University as a loner not wanting to connect with anyone. Anyone, that is, until he meets campus beauty April (Megan Good, Roll Bounce).

In his zeal to impress her, DJ unleashes a flurry of hip-hop inspired moves at a local dance club, upstaging the girl’s pompously cocksure boyfriend Grant (Darrin Henson, Showtime’s Soul Food) in the process. Next thing you know, this freshman right off the bus from the ‘hood finds himself being fought over by two of the school’s most prestigious fraternities full of kids from the country club.

But DJ isn’t interested in what these upper-crust snobs (as he sees them) have to offer. Still, with nothing else to do and wanting to take a chance he signs up to pledge with Grant’s rival Theta Nu Theta. Yet, while his raw talent and combustible dance moves can’t help but catch April’s eyes and make him a standout on the Frat’s Stepping Team, his inability to let anyone in or to be a part of a team could leave him out in the cold in both their eyes. Worse, the secret weighing against his heart could spell disaster, and on the eve of the National Championships and with his teammates counting on him everything, including DJ’s collegiate future, might be in serious jeopardy.

Don’t expect anything in the way of originality in the new film Stomp the Yard. Anyone who has watched a single underdog story from Rocky to Bring it On knows exactly where this one is going even before it begins. There is nothing subtle about either DJ’s struggles or his journey, and by the time all is said and done anyone who feels spiritually transformed by all of this really needs to get out more.

Yet this movie is not without interest. Stepping, an age-old style of dance traditionally done in African-American fraternities where teams demonstrate complex movies and create rhythmic sounds by using their bodies, is one of the most explosively exhilarating art forms I’ve seen in ages. The dancing and choreography here are exuberantly first-rate, the picture building beautifully towards Nationals saving its best sequences for the very last.

Unfortunately, this remarkably entertaining form of dance of flying bodies and pinpoint rhythmic precision is almost undermined by the shockingly intrusive handling of former music video and commercial director Sylvain White (I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer). He undercuts the film at almost every turn, alternately cranking up and slowing down the camera to the point where the majestic beauty of the Stepping is almost lost waste amidst the visual whiz-bang. It’s too much, and for the life of me I kept waiting for him to just leave things well enough alone and just let the dancing speak for itself.

Thankfully, and unlike similar films like the abysmal You Got Served, what White lacks behind the camera he certainly makes up for in his ability to handle and cast actors. Short, a former cast member of Broadway’s “Stomp,” is far better than the script gives him any right to be. He gives DJ a painful depth that’s actually rather affecting, his ultimate personal resurrection thanks to his fraternity brothers expressively believable under the young actor’s care. Good, Lennix and Pettiford add nice support, while former choreographer Henson is deliciously hissable as the piece’s snotty-yet-talented villain.

Is it enough to overcome the tired familiarity of the piece? No, not really. But it does come close enough that watching Stomp the Yard is hardly a chore. Heck, when White actually lets the dancing speak for itself the film even comes close to bordering on the fantastically magnificent. For a January release, I guess that in and of itself must be considered some sort of minor victory.

Film Rating: ××1/2  (out of 4)