The trouble with a movie becoming a blockbuster is that it gets copied and copied and copied ad nauseam. This happened with The Hunger Games and Dance to Death is one such copy. Yes, it's set in Moscow and the deadly tournament takes the form of a dancing competition, but the connection is clear: yet again we see a group of young people forced to fight each other to death, yet again two of them fall in love, yet again there is a corrupt government... Nothing we see here is new. Except for the dancing, which can hardly be called a bright new idea, as it makes the premise of the movie even more absurd.
The plot is of course totally predictable for anyone who has seen even a couple dystopian movies. The big plot twist didn't surprise me at all. Political fights between the people in power are presented in quite an interesting way, but it's the only part of the plot that isn't boring, absurd, and full of highly unlikely events. Everything else is shallow and uninteresting.
The acting is also pretty poor, especially when it comes to the main characters. Ivan Zhvakin as Kostya is flat and seemingly incapable of showing any emotion and Lukerya Ilyashenko as Anya is overacting pretty much all the time. The only performance I really liked is Denis Shvedov as a champion plotting to overthrow the current ruler and take the power for himself. Sadly, one good performance can't save the movie.
CGI is quite good and nice to look at and the music fits the story. However, neither of these things makes Dance to Death a good movie. It's derivative, shallow, predictable, and full of plot holes.
