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| Associated Press/Sony Pictures
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| The movie poster for “Michael Jackson’s This is It.” |
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Melanie Munk, Features Editor
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Published: Friday, October 30, 2009
‘This is It’ showcases Michael Jackson the entertainer
The plan to release a bunch of Michael Jackson rehearsal footage, shot in the weeks before his death in June, sounded like a rather ghoulish attempt to cash in on the 50-year-old pop superstar’s untimely demise.
Well, maybe it is a ghoulish attempt to cash in. But the resulting movie, “Michael Jackson’s This is It,” while geared to diehard fans and not without its maudlin moments, is a lot more impressive than expected.
Clearly the production team (led by director Kenny Ortega) shot copious amounts of footage and many of the numbers were well developed and choreographed. In fact, there’s a lot of evidence that the concert tour Jackson was about to embark on would’ve lived up to its high expectations. Among other things, this movie debunks the theory that Jackson was working on a dud or that he was exhausted and out of it.
Actually, Michael Jackson appears to be in good physical shape in the rehearsals. Well, that’s overlooking the weirdo plastic surgery, of course.
He’s also sharp creatively. One of the more notable things to emerge from “This is It” is Jackson’s perfectionistic control over his show.
Ortega buzzes around offering support and suggestions, but Jackson is clearly calling the shots: telling his musicians to repeat musical phrases until a certain feeling is achieved (“You gotta let it simmer … bathe it in the moonlight”) or working with dancers to find the right piece of stagecraft.
His instincts are almost always right, even admitting that we’re talking about an over-the-top stage show. The guy had a real sense of theater. For all the things he got wrong in his life, when he held center stage he was fully alive and knew what worked.
Some film segments were shot for the concert, and we see pieces of those: new stuff for “Thriller,” a melodramatic environmental story for the overdone “Earth Song,” and MJ’s variation on the Steve Martin movie “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” in which he is inserted into old film-noir clips.
A few songs are obviously in the early stages of being worked out, such as “Billie Jean.” But others sizzle, and anybody who needs a hit of “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” or “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” or “Human Nature” will not be disappointed.
Some of Jackson’s moves are the same as those executed in his original videos for his most famous hits, and some are new. They’re all skillfully performed.
You can’t help feeling, as you’re watching “This is It,” that if only this talented manchild could’ve figured out a way to keep his head straight, he might’ve been that much greater. And probably lived longer.
Jackson’s talent doesn’t absolve whatever creepy decisions he made offstage, of course. But this film does demonstrate how real the talent was.
“This is It”
The rehearsal footage captured in the weeks before Michael Jackson’s death turns out to be surprisingly compelling and shows Jackson to be in control and in good shape. It’s an interesting study of a performer creating theater.
Rated: PG for subject matter
Showing: Alderwood, Everett Stadium, Cinnebarre, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Merian, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville, Cascade Mall
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