Film Reviews

This Is It

• Rating:
• Director: Kenny Ortega
• Starring: Michael Jackson
• Details: US/112mins PG

Glimpses of the genius that is Michael Jackson are prominent through-out, but fans shouldn't expect any more than glorified fine-tuning of the concerts that never happened.
Assembled from rehearsal footage for his proposed fifty night residency at the O2 Arena in London, This Is It is essentially Michael Jackson rehearsing for nearly two hours. Sure, there are gushing crew members and dancers, all waxing lyrical about how much of a privilege it is to be on the same stage as the 'King of Pop', while "Creative Partner" Kenny Ortega shines it all up good and nice, but this is hardly insightful stuff. By a Jackson family member's own admission, this is MJ himself at about forty percent. Granted, that still blows the majority of today's pretenders out of the water, but all it does is offer a glimpse of how great Jackson once was, and how spectacular that show at the O2 could've been, if fate hadn't cruelly intervened.
Regardless of how you look at this (it's not a concert film, it's not a documentary, and it's barely a movie), fans of Jackson will be lining up around the block at the chance to witness rare behind the scenes footage of his creative process. They'll be glad to see he is still an incredibly slick performer, effortlessly flailing limbs with a hypnotic smoothness; proof that you never lose raw ability, grown from a God-given talent. A couple of moments where he's refining musical and dance elements aside, we don't see a lot of him off stage.
Enjoyment of This Is It is all about expectations; if you're an obsessed fan, screaming and fainting is obviously mandatory. Casual fans, too, may enjoy his bittersweet swansong, but given that this was all shot for Jackson's own personal use (?), there's a glaring lack of purpose to the whole thing, rendering it instantly forgettable for non-fans. His musical genius, however, still resonates, even if this only serves as a reminder of that.

Review by Mike Sheridan