YMMV / Step Up

• Badass Decay: The Mob go from dancers with humble backgrounds who also happen to be viral sensations capable of pulling off elaborate, showstopping flash mobs in Revolution... to even more empoverished Starving Artists in All In.
• Cliché Storm:
  • Both the plots of 3D and All In are every low-budged sports/competition convention thrown in, complete with the two rival team's lead dancers being former friends that had a falling out — although, in All In's case, The Mob ends up taking a backseat to the Grim Knights as LMNTRIX's main rivals.
  • Revolution follows a different cliché, specifically that of the protagonists trying to prevent a Community-Threatening Construction from going forward.
• Contested Sequel: Some fans consider the third movie to be the high point of the franchise while others think it is the worst or second worst of the original five films.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Moose, introduced in The Streets. The positive reception towards the character inevitably led to him coming back for the three subsequent sequels, with 3D and All In giving him and Camille equal importance to the main couples. In Revolution he returns alongside Vladd, Jenny and Hair during the big final flash mob, but is the only one of the four to have speaking lines.
  • Missy is only in a secondary role in the second film and a minor one in the third, but has a lot of fans for the way she sticks with Andie after the rest of their crew unfairly ostracize her.
  • Recurring characters the Santiago Twins have little dialogue or characterization in any of their appearances but are some of the best-liked supporting dancers for the main cast.
  • Sophie from the second film does little dancing with the main cast, most of the scenes fleshing her out were deleted, and her Last Minute Hook Up with Moose is disliked and often ignored. Still, she has a respectable number of fans for her Defrosting the Ice Queen Lovable Alpha Bitch moments and for being a rare dancer in the franchise who also sings.
  • The Robot Girl dancer and the Grim Knight twins from All In have almost no dialogue, relatively few scenes, and little plot importance beyond some Pair the Spares moments with Vladd and the Santiago Twins. Still, they get some good choreography and a few Meet Cute moments that make them some of the best-liked dancers from the rival crews in the series, with some fans wishing they had gotten more screen-time.
• Even Better Sequel: The Streets was better received by critics for having a better plot and better dancing than the first movie, and this only increased with the three subsequent sequels.
• Fanon: Camille's blood ties to Tyler aren't concrete. Even Alyson Stoner said that they weren't sure the two were siblings or foster siblings. At most the two are half-siblings because she mentions her dad being in prison, but fans decided that they were related and the producers just went with it.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Andie/Blake from The Streets, and in some circles, Sean/Eddy from Revolution and All In.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Some fans think the deleted scenes in the second movie where Sophie rats out Andie’s (tenuous) connection to the school vandals and then feels bad about it and tries to make amends flesh her out in a way that the final cut doesn’t.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Year of the Dance, due to taking place in China and having an all-local cast as result, is so divorced from the rest of the franchise that most of the fans just pretend it doesn't exist.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series, with the exception of possibly the first one, haven't really made a cultural impact here in the States and each film is released to gradually dwindling box office numbers. But worldwide however, each film makes over $100 million and coupled with low production costs, is the main reason why sequels are made.
• Ho Yay: Between Sean and Eddy in Revolution and All In.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Quite a few people only saw 3D because Adam Sevani and Alyson Stoner were in it and don't care for the main plot and other just watch for the dancing.
  • Likewise, many fans of Glee and Shadowhunters have seen The Streets solely due to Harry Shum Jr. being part of the cast, and the casting of So You Think You Can Dance alumni such as Stephen "tWitch" Boss, Kathryn McCormick and Phillip "Pacman" Chbeeb in the following films helped draw fans of the show towards the franchise.
• Moral Event Horizon: Crossed in All In with the revelation that the dance tournament was rigged. Alexxa Brava especially went over with her being in cahoots with the Grim Knights (most of all their frontman Jasper, whom she has a closet relationship with), who the producers were planning on crowning at the end before LMNtrix's show-stopping and spectacular performance forced them to change their minds, much to Alexxa's clear dismay.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • Many fans back in the day were upset that Andie was the star of The Streets rather than Camille.
  • Fans of Highwater were not happy with Christina Millan replacing Naya Rivera as Colette after the latter's death.
• Signature Scene:
  • Definitely for Step Up 3D, if not the entire franchise, the water dance battle set to Madcon’s ‘Beggin’ is often cited as one of the most remembered scenes from the movies.
  • The final dance in the rain from Step 2 is another contender.
• Strangled by the Red String: Violet and Chad from All In. Throughout the movie, Violet comes across as Butch Lesbian-coded and continuously rejects Chad's advances towards her, so their kiss at the end winds up coming across as jarring rather than satisfying.