It was so strange seeing Michael Jackson in his movie This Is It. Coming all the way from his reclusion to this over the top best-of performance, all I can think to say is "What a shame." This man ruins his reputation all through his life and then finally at the moment of possible redemption he kicked the can.
As a long time Michael Jackson fan, I loved the movie. This Is It is basically a movie substitution of what his show would have been, had he gotten the chance to actually perform it.
To me the movie has have a bitter subtext to it which says, "Look what you could have had..." (insert person you wish to blame here ___________.) The whole time you know the Michael Jackson you see on screen is only days away from death which is enough of a bummer. I however think his appearance was much better then we've all seen lately over the past several years. To be fair the camera rarely ever went in too tight on his face but he had the 90's Michael Jackson stingy hair again instead of that weird straightened thing he had been doing.
The love and effort that went into that show was really special. You see Michael drilling his musicians into playing the songs EXACTLY like how they were played on the albums because he said that's what the audience was expecting. Almost every song had a newly produced video counterpart to play alongside the performance. For Smooth Criminal they spliced MJ into some Humprey Bogart film noir movie. For Thriller they shot all kinds of zombies in 3D, yes the audience was to wear 3D glasses during Thriller, could you expect anything less?
Despite Jacko occasionally restraining his voice, you wouldn't know this was rehearsal footage. The effort and passion that went into all of his dancing seemed to match what you would expect from an actual live performance. It was great to see that after all this time has gone by, he is still passionate about doing these songs proper justice.
Michael Jackson is a musical and dancing genius, however communication didn't seem to be his thing. During one scene he stops a song and casualy tattles to the director that, "My ear monitors feel like some's pushing their fist right into my head, I know you all mean well but I can't concentrate. But I tell you with love, that's L-O-V-E, love."
The show's director responds, "Okay...So do you want them to change the volume or the mix? Do you want to hear more of something?"
After an awkward moment of contemplation Michael responds,"No, let's just bring things down."
The movie is 1 hour and 51 minutes. I could have handled longer, the wife could have handled shorter. The theater gave away these cool faux-backstage passes so you felt special and I did!
On a side note, doesn't Jacko kinda look like the Other Mother from Coraline?
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