Title: This Is It
Director: Kenny Ortega
Staring: Michael Jackson
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Studio: Sony Pictures
Genre(s): Concert/Documentary
Rated:
(For some suggestive choreography and scary images) CONSUMER ADVICE Parents, except for Michael's crotch grabbing there's not much to object to here. Recommended for ages 6 and up.
He hadn’t been on stage in years and he felt it was time. Some said he was crazy, that he didn’t have it anymore. They told him to not bother. Never-the-less he went forward. It was to be his final curtain call. Sadly, that curtain call came too soon, when Michael Jackson suddenly died and his “This Is It” concert series was never to be seen. Or was it? Like most performers with big egos Michael taped everything he did. Therefor we had hundreds of hours worth of rehearsal footage of which an editor could splice together and give us an idea of what those concerts would have been like. After watching “This Is It” I’m under the impression that the concert would have been one hell of a show, but that the stuff could have been edited better.
Rarely has a movie failed so heavily because of terrible editing. To listen to Sony Pictures talk it sounded like hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage was filmed. This I can believe. So why is it so many of the flubs, goof ups, and technical difficulties make it into the film? I’m not expecting perfection, but there should be enough here for a little bit of consistency. Take the opening performance as an example: Michael is performing “Wanna Be Startin’ Something.” This is to be his opening. In this performance alone Michael changes costumes during the song, the background goes from decently lit to extremely dark, and the quality jumps from high definition to blurry home video quality.
Many of the performances are like this. On the IMAX where I saw it this was particularly distracting. With all the hundreds of hours they got are they telling me they couldn’t get the performance to be in full HD with the same costume? I think they could have. The only thing is they likely would have had to view the performance from just a couple of angles. But with an average of eight different angles there are many moments where the picture will shrink and the film will be practically unwatchable. It feels like a shame because I’m questioning whether this jump in quality was necessary. I personally don’t think it is. It’s also very distracting to have so many interruptions during the songs. There has to have been enough footage for them to be able to make these performances feel seamless.
In fact, that’s what I was hoping this movie would be: As close as a recreation of what the “This Is It” concert would have been like. With computer graphics and careful editing I think this could have been a reality, and it would have made for a far more interesting movie. Instead we have a weird hybrid of a concert and documentary. Does the documentary have any deep insights to Michael? Not really. The biggest surprise is to see him energetic and full of life. If he was on drugs it wasn’t apparent here. He does, however, seem to have difficulty in letting the sound man know that the sound in his earpiece is too loud. Oh, and his dancers and musicians love him. Really love him. When they say working with Michael is the greatest thing in the world I didn’t doubt them for one minute.
It’s hard to figure out exactly what everyone’s reaction to this movie is going to be. Will they be frustrated by it’s complete lack of focus and purpose? Will they soak up every minute of it because it’s Michael’s last footage? Personally the film did nothing for me because it felt like a gimmick. With a couple more months to think up a way to edit and sell this it likely could have been an event movie. Right now the only thing that’s truly good about this movie are the songs, and those are readily available on CD and iTunes. If they do make a sequel out of this somehow I’d like them to take my idea from paragraph four and title is “This Is It: The Real Concert Experience.” Or they could just remaster one of his popular concerts for IMAX next time. Even that would have been more interesting and fun then this was.
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