This Is It

FILM REVIEW : Michael Jackson's This is It (2009)

As anyone who regularly reads this blog could guess, I was very skeptical going in to see Michael Jackson's This Is It. I was pretty excited because I love Jackson's music, but I was upset that this quickly shuffled together documentary is considered to be a huge contender for a Best Picture nomination. After actually seeing the film for myself, I can actually weigh in on the film: while it was amazing to see Michael Jackson in his last rehearsals, I still don't feel like this works as a film.
 The exposition of this "documentary" was absolutely brilliant. The aforementioned exposition is essentially some of the crew talking about how excited they were to work with Jackson. Some of them were very emotional in their responses. The rest of the documentary essentially focuses on what the concert itself was going to entail.
 Let me just say that this footage was phenomenal. If Mister Jackson were still alive, audiences would have been treated to one of the greatest concert experiences of all time. Despite this, I still can't help but feel that this should have been on television. This just doesn't fit well on the silver screen.
 
There is one huge problem here that has been touched on by others. This problem isn't the content in the film; however, it's what's NOT covered in the film. Director Kenny Ortega, of High School Musical fame, did a great job with staging Michael Jackson's concert comeback. However, he did very sub-par work with editing and piecing together footage of Michael Jackson. The audience gets to see Michael Jackson the performer, which is something I think everyone has seen at one point, but we never see Michael Jackson the man.
 
Also, for the whole "Michael Jackson deserves an Oscar" thing. Again, he does not deserve an Academy Award. He was not prominent in the film industry! If there was an award for significance in the entertainment industry as a whole, then I would wholeheartedly support him winning a posthumous award. But an Oscar?! I completely disagree.
 
Overall, I had a great time watching it.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10 stars (3.5 out of 5 stars)

Photo Courtesy: Earsucker

Julian Stark (pen name)<br />
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Founder/Editor: Movies and Other Things<br />
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http://julianstark-moviesandotherthings.blogspot.com

Booze Revooze: A Drinker’s Skewed View of Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT

Drink: 0 shots

At first i thought there wasn’t anything alcohol related in the film, then i remembered hearing something about the Mike dude pouring wine in cola cans and calling it “Jesus Juice” before he gave it to the little boys he was putting to bed. Don’t know if this is true or not, but while i don’t condone serving alcohol to kids or putting them to bed, i have no problem with people calling wine “Jesus Juice”. i’m open minded like that.

Rock & Roll: ½ Shot

Orianthi rocks and rocks hard.

Everything else is just noise.

Boring Technical Crap

Directed by: Kenny Ortega

Starring

Orianthi – Herself (Lead Guitar)

Micheal Michael Jefferson The Jeffersons Michael Jordan or Jackson or  Something

Bottom Line

Don’t see it. See Orianthi.

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Al K Hall<br />
Functional Alcoholic Slurperson<br />
(No, REALLY. Google &amp;quot;Slurperson&amp;quot; if you don't believe me.)

Last updated: 2010-04-04 17:05:36 by user08

Michael Jackson's This Is It

We’re looking at the music in the mirror and it is ourselves growing up.

One Word Movie Review: GOOD

Michael Jackson’s This Is It is a trip through time, to a driving, dance beat which powers this multimedia tribute to the King of Pop. “It” is also a documentary of a concert production, with an eager, talented cast gearing up to their big moment, sharing the stage with Michael Jackson. As one singer remarks, “I first sang Man in the Mirror in my grade 3 class and now I'm singing it on stage with Michael”. It was Jackson's 'Thriller' in 1982 which gave birth to the MTV generation, with the graveyard theatrics of song, story and dance lifting music video promo clips beyond anything done before.

On the screen, it is all about the music and the performers, the incredible stage presentation that was sold out for 50 shows in London scheduled to start this past July. It would have been one awesome show, if not for the death of Michael three weeks before opening night. Now we are left with the documentary rehearsal footage which has been crafted into “It”, concentrating on the songs and dance and drama of the concert, with virtually nothing of Michael‟s private life. It is the start of his legacy, packaging the core of what made him great. When you watch “It”, you live in the music and forget the man. The film is only the concert experience, the best bits the filmmakers could crib together from the source material. It may not sound like much, but it is enough to blow most real concerts away.

Give credit to Kenny Ortega for pulling “It” off, taking a tragic event and turning it into a celebration of what could have been, stitching the rehearsals together into a concert experience which feels both intimate and inspiring.

Highlights include Human Nature, with Michael adding dramatic pauses and gestures, Earth Song where he soars high over the stage on a cherry picker against a backdrop of rain forests and bulldozers and Black Or White with that great guitar riff and screaming solo from Orianthi Panagaris.


The Story

There is no story on the screen, except the sequence of songs played through as if it was a live show.  Other than some drama in selecting dancers who have that special “ooze”, the movie is all performance and the occasional banter of “pause here”, “watch for my cue” and “you‟ve got to make it simmer”. The story is all off-screen, watching Michael for signs of strain, ill-health or depression, as well as evidence of what 40 years of mega-stardom has done to him, from his face to his moves to his voice and especially, his interaction with others.

The movie is, no doubt, carefully edited to show the King of Pop in the best possible light, much like Elvis who is now remembered for his music and his on-stage persona, with his death and private fried-peanut-butter-sandwich life fading into the dust of tabloid recycling bins. The truth is on the screen. Jackson can dance and sing like we‟d expect to see him, nailing the moves and in control of the show. His sense of timing and drama is everywhere, the dramatic delivery of every song, his body rippling through each beat effortlessly and his voice strong and pure pop. The energy of the performers is awesome, with talent everywhere. It is a shame they will not share Michael‟s spotlight, brought home with a scene late in the film where they join hands for a group thank you from Michael. They sure had a good thing going, ready to soar until his death killed the lights.

Other than some personalities exposed in short comments, the focus is on Michael all the way through and the pacing is such that you go with the music and hit the pause button on his back story.

The Genre

The concert documentary has an uneven history, from classic event films like Woodstock and The Last Waltz to Ortega‟s own Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour and the Jonas Brothers recent 3D concert disaster. The success of these movies is partly controlled by the talent on the stage and also by the “vision” of the director. Martin Scorsese has made a creative sideline for himself with concert films, having been the Assistant Director on Woodstock to leading The Band through their Last Waltz and more recently capturing the Rolling Stones in Shine a Light.

To make #1, the concert film has to have a built-in audience keen to enjoy the artist, an exclusive or rare performance like Michael or Eddie Murphy Raw which hit #1 in 1987 at the peak of his popularity. In general, big concert movies are rare events but when done well, can be timeless treasures to enjoy for a long time.

The Overall Quality

The quality of every piece of design, dance, staging and musical performance is top of the heap. Kenny Ortega, coming off the relentlessly cheerful High School Musicals, had made an upbeat film a few short months after Jackson‟s sudden death. It must have been a shattering event for everyone involved in the production but it is not mentioned except in the opening text against a dark screen.

The musicians all rock, especially blonde Orianthi Panagaris on guitar (she has much better stage hair than Slash) and Mo‟ Pleasure on keyboards, taking instruction from Michael to “make it simmer” and “bathe it in moonlight” which I think are fine tuning to the normal pianissimo and forte of more traditional music expression.

The film captures the youthful exuberance of the dancers and the professionalism of the production staff.  Several film sequences planned for back projection during the concert are visually “nourishing”, to use a MJ term. Other than a goofy gangster short, green-screening a gruesome-looking Michael in with Humphrey Bogart and E.J. Robinson as an intro to 'Smooth Criminal’, the film segments shift the movie out of the sometimes-claustrophobic rehearsal stage setting for a welcome change of pace.

Movie/Market Analysis

MarketBOB‟s sentiment indicators, the GQS (Genre, Quality, Story) rate this movie an emotional BULL.  Despite the sub-text of his personal troubles and death, the movie is surprisingly strong as a Michael Jackson tribute to his music and innovative dance moves. It shapes how he will be remembered and, like so many pop stars before him, his music lives on for all to enjoy even as the details of his life fade. He will become another Elvis, as his company leverages his assets and fame to continued success. This movie, produced by The Michael Jackson Company, will mark the turning point in his elevation to shared royalty with the King.

Last updated: 2010-03-27 14:08:36 by user08

Michael Jackson's This Is It: Movie Review

Who could ever forget June 25, 2009? Everything changed for us that day and we can say that for the whole world as well. We remember waking up and turning on the television just to see something on CNN that was unbelievable; maybe it was our weary eyes from the sleep that caused us to see those words. Words that sunk in eventually – that Michael Jackson was dead. MJ is perhaps the most hated yet most loved performer of all time. When he was alive, controversies ran abound but on his death, everything changed in an instant and this just shows how great the man was. “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” promises to give us a glimpse of the final curtain call MJ announced last year. Can this rehearsal concert be a fitting end to MJ’s legacy?

“Michael Jackson’s This Is It” is composed of snippets from Michael Jackson’s rehearsals on the Staples Center for his upcoming London Tour, “This Is It”. The footage was never intended for public consumption but primarily just for Michael’s private library. “This Is It” will give us a glimpse on what the concert tour should have looked like. It will also let us see Michael Jackson performing just before his untimely death.

Watching “This Is It” will make you stare in awe and amazement. “Is this guy really 50 years old?” was the first thing that came to our minds. This is not the drug-induced, frail, sick man that was portrayed to us by the popular media. No, MJ can still do it - singing, dancing and much, much more. And considering that was yet to be a hundred percent performance, he was truly phenomenal. In some moments, he even looked liked he was doing moves he did when he was in his twenties. The movie also shows how meticulous he was with his music. Even the littlest of notes were scrutinized yet even with his very stringent manner, he was always soft spoken towards his peers.

Visually, the film was almost perfect albeit some videos were shot at a lower bit rate. We wished the film had chosen to go with the high definition videos all the time but considering how limited material they had, this did not really affect our experience. Audio-wise, it was perfect as much as the video was. The film did give justice to Michael Jackson and his music. By the end of the film, it will make you smile and yet some sadness still creeps in as you wonder what could have been if MJ lived (How much amazing “This Is It” was going to become had it pushed through). For us though, we were satisfied with “Michael Jackson’s This Is It”. This is not the dumb-down version some people expected. MJ fans (and even non-fans) should definitely watch this.

Rating: 5 reels

Why you should watch it:
- seeing Michael in his purest form is phenomenal indeed
- watch the very last gift he wanted to share to the world

Why you shouldn’t watch it:
- if you expected something much more complete and finished, you might be disappointed.

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Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-03-12 02:51:13 by user06

michael jackson’s this is it

say what you will about michael jackson, and yes, brother did have his issues, but he could sing and dance his ass off.  the man was born to be on stage.

i’m not the biggest mj fan in the world, in fact at times i’ve been highly critical of the man and his antics.  but ya know what?  he’s gone and we are left with all the good things he has done and maybe that won’t wipe away all the crazy stuff we witnessed, but for me.  who cares.  thriller freaking rocks!

i got mj songs stuck in my head i had forgotten where mj songs.

michael jackson looks happy during the rehearsals for that big concert that never happened.  whenever you used to see him on tv or in an interview or anything else, he just looks so uncomfortable.  like he’s not really sure how he is expected to act.  but on stage, he knew how to act.  he looks happy.  looks like he belongs.  and it’s awesome.

if you like michael jackson or not, go see this thing.  it’s only got a few days left at the theater but you’d be sorry to miss it.  they were preparing to put on maybe the greatest spectacle of a concert the likes of such have never been seen.  and these are just rehearsals that are captured here, but the energy, the light, the sound is incredible.

they are not piping music in.  the band is live.  right there on stage with michael.  there ain’t no lip synching at a michael jackson show.  not even during rehearsals.  it’s awesome.  go see it.

best concert movie ever.

Cal Reed

Michael Jackson's This Is It

"Michael Jackson's This Is It" is a documentary film made from rehearsal footage from what would have been Michael Jackson's final concert tour. The film is directed by Kenny Ortega (choreographer for "Dirty Dancing," director/choreographer for the "High School Musical" movies, and he helped to create Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" and "HIStory" tours.) Of course the film stars the late Michael Jackson as well as several dancers and members of the crew.

Mid-July 2009 was supposed to be the start of Michael Jackson's final tour, "This Is It." There would be 50 shows at the O2 Arena in London, England, lasting until March 2010. This all was cancelled upon Michael Jackson's untimely death in June. Although the concert tour never came to be, there was an awful lot of rehearsal footage which became the basis for the film. There was over 100 hours of rehearsal footage available. In August Sony bought the rights to that footage for $60 million in order to make a movie. After much editing, what we have is slightly under two hours of rehearsal footage with Michael Jackson and his dancers as well as interviews and other behind-the scenes clips.

The movie is pretty well put together. The main attraction of the movie is all of the song rehearsals. It was good to see all the effort that went into these rehearsals. Even at 50, Michael Jackson still had at great voice and was a great dancer. He seems very natural even when next to dancers nearly half his age. The energy he puts into performances is amazing (and this was just rehearsals...the real thing would have been even better.) It is completely evident that Michael Jackson loved his work with every fiber of of his being. His rehearsals of classics like "Billie Jean," "Man in the Mirror," "Smooth Criminal," "They Don't Really Care About Us," "Thiller," "Black or White," etc simply prove this passion. The movie also goes a little into the behind-the-scenes of the rehearsals. They show discussions between Michael Jackson and Kenny Ortega or other crew members about what needed to be changed for certain parts of the show. People also talk about what it was liked to be picked as a dancer for the tour, some auditions are shown, and Michael Jackson is shown telling everyone about the "This Is It" tour. Overall a very good - although all-too brief - look at what goes into making a Michael Jackson tour, complete with behind-the-scenes footage, beyond just the actual song performances.

Besides the songs and dances themselves, there is also a good use of special effects via green screen in the movie. All of this is done on a huge screen behind Michael Jackson and the other dancers. This included digitally-added Michael Jackson into a Humphrey Bogart movie before performing "Smooth Criminal," a small group of dancers dressed as soldiers turned into thousands via green screen for "They Don't Really Care About Us," and a new video that was made to be shown during the performance of "Thriller." This just adds to the highly elaborate staging and effects the movie offered, that the tour would have.

The main issue that I had with the movie was that a few times between scenes there would be a black screen for a longer period of time than most movies. Sometimes there would be people talking before the next scene was visible on the screen. This made some of the edits seem a little choppy. Also, the film would have been great to see in 3-D; at least the scenes that were going to be shown in 3-D during the tour. The ending seemed like it came a bit abruptly, although given the type of movie that's not a huge problem. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," the first song performed in the movie seemed to be the weakest performed song, which isn't to say it's not good, just several other songs I felt were performed better.

"Michael Jackson's This Is It" is completely successful in what it set out to do - give the world a glimpse of what the "This Is It" concert tour would have had been like. If this movie is any indication, the tour would have been amazing. Michael Jackson was so invested in his work, and it shows in the rehearsals. All the dancing ability, vocal ability and stage presence in general is here. The special effects also enhance the enjoyment of the elaborate stage production. In the end there is nothing majorly wrong with the film at all. It's a great piece of entertainment and the movie is a nice memorial to "The King of Pop," an entertainment legend that will never be forgotten. 3 1/2 out of 4 stars...it's only in theaters for 2 weeks...so see it soon...

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This Is It

• For those of you who get on me about not eating enough (and you know who you are), I look like Fat Bastard compared to Mike in this movie.  I know the man was never known to hit the gym, but my goodness he was skinny.  He sure seemed healthy enough throughout the rehearsals though didn't he?
• Along those lines, it's ironic that in the past few weeks I've had stepshows on my brain from my college days.  I say that to say, I know when you're gearing up for a show in front of a live audience, you're pretty much going half-speed all the way up until the week/day before the big show.  So seeing rough cuts of various songs/sequences didn't throw me off as much as some people who might have been expecting more.  Frankly, Mike at half speed would still get my money before damn near everybody else right now who's touring live.
• Maybe it's because I didn't hear him sing it as an adult alot, if ever, but the half speed version of "I'll Be There" still had my hairs standing up.  I don't know if I wanted to see that full production number; that was clearly set up to be a show-stopper.
• The editor deserves a little credit on this one, but I'm seriously starting to doubt if there will ever be a song that guarantees an "Awwwww shyt!" more than the intro to Billie Jean, especially when you don't see it coming.
• Seeing 50 year old Mike go through the motions of Beat It and Thriller put a smile on my face, I couldn't help it but rewind the Blu-Ray, get up, and dance along with Mike in my living room.
• I heard Prince told Mike once that if he really wanted to throw down on a comeback tour, he should do a straight accoustic set to remind people how good of a vocalist he was.  Even though he complained about it after the fact, I know I wasn't the only one who could, as my Captain would say, 'feel the moistness' when Mike freestyled a little at the end of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You".  I think I went psychically deaf for a few minutes.
• Finally, more than a few times as they were going through it, you could clearly see Mike smiling and enjoying himself.  In retrospect, I think that's what I was looking for.  For all the damage both self-inflicted and done by others to this man, did this cat that I borderline worshipped for so many years actually enjoy his gift as much as we did?  Or was he more like a Brando who always seemed to have a borderline contempt for his own extraordinary talents?  Without getting into all of Mike's issues (which would take all week), I think on the most basic level he enjoyed what he could do.

Michael Jackson's This Is It

Man.. I really miss MJ after watching this. Aww man now I'm getting all emotional *sniff*



This Is It! is basically a collection of rehearsal footage's of MJ preparing for is This Is It tour which will never come to be cause the guy had to fucking die. The film showcases him rehearsing all his popular songs and with some interviews with his band mates and dancers.



Watching MJ dance and sing here really makes me miss him all over again. I still can't let him go cause the man's just awesome and he's done so much impact in my life personally. It's great seeing him dance again after such a long time. And yeah since this was just rehearsals, MJ wasn't exactly going all out, I think he gave it mostly 80% for the most parts but 80 is still kick ass tome.



And he's gotta be one of the most well dressed people in the history of rehearsal. In every video he's in, the dues like wearing coats and glasses. MJ got style yo! The only person I found more interesting to watch than MJ was one of his back up dancers.



This girl. Who is this girl? People..I gotta find out who she is! I gotta find out whats her name and where this girl lives so I can o there and ask he to marry me. Damn this girl is fine as hell and she's a great dancer to!




All the performances in This Is It are great. But the ones that I liked best were Thriller, which had some awesome 3D and zombie shit.. Smooth Criminal, which had me having a geekgasm when they had Humphrey Bogart and Rita Hayworth put into the opening video with MJ. I loved The Way You Make Me Feel which is one of my favorite live MJ song and Shake You're Body Down To The Ground which was just some good ole funk and dancing.



But of all the great performances in the film, the one that trumps them all was when MJ did Earth Song and when the video with the Earth Child came out. Wow. That was one of the strongest, most moving videos I have ever seen. Now that would have been a great music video for Earth Song. And Jasmin Alvarez who's the girl in the video is just the cutest thing ever!



There's this other girl in the movie to, she's MJ's guitarist. I got her name right her, her names Orianthi Panagaris. Wow this girl can really kill a guitar.I mean her fingers move up and down those frats like.. like Jimmi fuckin Hendrix man. She totally owns the solo in Beat It but in comparison to the great Jennifer Baten who was MJ's previous guitarist, Orianthi's got a long way to go.



And Kenny Ortega is just a big joke in this movie. He should just sick to directing lame teen musicals cause he's got nothing on MJ. All the scenes with him in it practically has him kissing MJ's ass or having MJ tear all his suggestions apart and all Kenny Ortega does is just go, "Yes MJ. You're right MJ. Sorry MJ. I Love you MJ." So like.. whats the point of him being the director in all this?



You know I really don't see the point of them needing to show This Is It. I really don't need to know what could have been with the concert, I was hoping the film be more of a tribute film to Michael Jackson.



The film barely shows us anything that will make us relate to MJ as a person. I wished there was a personal interview with him instead of hearing how great he is from his band members. We already know he's great.. now we want to know the man in person. MJ barely speaks in this movie and doesn't even look at the camera. The whole time I felt like the kid in the zoo watching the snake in the cage and going, "C'mon! Move!!"

RATING: 7/10

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NicholasC

Great movie ... Hats off to MJ

Just came back from screening of this movie.

I went with very low expectation but it was really great movie. Lots of MJ songs and practice sessions.

His female guitarist was out of the world, simply superb.

I wish they had shown or MJ has performed some more of his stunts (moon walk, dance stunts etc etc)... so deducted 1 star for this...

MJ was so humble, I dint expect that from such a big start... I m really impressed with his behavior towards his troop :) I m not a big MJ fan.. and I was totally amazed by editing and quality of movie... I m pretty sure MJ fans would love this....

Hats off to MJ ... RIP....

Vincent Snavely