Despite everything that went wrong, let's get one thing out of the way: "Fame" is not a cheery musical. Without the music, this definitely would be classified as a drama.

The movie follows a group of 10 students who are a part of the New York City High School of Performing Arts. In the beginning, these students are brimming with anticipation and anxiety. They all have dreams of being the best and of moving on to bigger and better things. However, as the movie continues, a number of them are emotionally ripped to shreds by the pursuit of fame and, by the end of senior year, they all learn that being famous isn't what it's cracked up to be.

Instead of a cheery musical filled with upbeat numbers, the film makers created a character-driven show with a limited focus on songs and dance.

But herein lies the problem: the movie focuses on 10 characters and not one of them is even remotely interesting. They are all paper-thin characters with no complexity or depth. I felt like I was watching an after-school special.

Charles S. Dutton plays "the teacher who asks insightful questions." Kelsey Grammer plays the "teacher who has a gift for seeing potential talent." Kay Panabaker plays the "talented student who struggles to break out of her emotional shell." These characters and many others never get past their one-sentence summary.

If this were a musical in the vein of "Hairspray," where the singing and dancing takes precedence, the lack of character development would be fine. But for a movie that focuses so much on the lives of these performers, movie execs have to give a reason to care for them, and "Fame" never does that.

"Fame" is also plagued by an incompetent director in Kevin Tancharoen, who makes his feature film debut. His previous work included directing music videos, which explains a lot about its style. Music videos are often short, with quick shots and stylized dance sequences, and this is exactly how "Fame" is shot. There are quick cuts, dialogue between characters never lasts more than a couple of minutes, and when the dance scenes finally come around, they are brought down by Tancharoen's compulsion to fill the screen with shots of people dancing around a room. The director's job in a musical is to film it in such a way that the choreography looks as upbeat and exciting as possible. Instead of making the dancers the stars, Tancharoen makes his camera shots the main attractions.

Lastly, the talent just isn't here. Sure, all of the cast involved can sing, dance and act, but none of them are better than the average college performer. When a major motion picture company advertises a movie about highly talented people, I expect to be entertained by a bunch of Broadway-level performers. I guess some could argue the makers wanted these actors to realistically portray high school students, but since the writers never do anything to make "real" high school students, perhaps the talent to make this an ear-popping musical just wasn't there.

As a whole, "Fame" is a dull mess. The characters are paper-thin, the direction is unfocused and jumpy and none of the songs are memorable. We only get to hear the original "Fame" song in the opening credits.

There's really no reason to see this movie. If you want to see great dancing, watch "So You Think You Can Dance," and if you want to view a character-driven musical, check out "Once." And finally, if you have to see a movie called "Fame," just watch the original 1980 version. It has to be better than this uninspired mess.

-Patrick Bales is a senior in elementary education. Send comments to edge@spub.ksu.edu