Is This It?
posted on Friday, October 30, 2009 in Movie Reviews
The thought that was stuck in my head while watching Michael Jackson’s This is It was that most of this footage was never meant to be seen. All the rehearsal footage that was shot was meant to go to Michael Jackson’s private library to be locked away and enjoyed in private by this famously private man and his family. That’s the kind of thought that can make for queasy watching. Though the performances are still pretty decent, and the editing is sharp and clever, one has to take a step back and look at the larger picture. Is this it? Is this really what we want? Couldn’t we have left well enough alone?The movie is cobbled together from footage shot during the rehearsals for Michael Jackson’s final set of concerts: 50 sold out performances at the O2 arena in the United Kingdom. The movie focuses primarily on the technical stage rehearsals, catching Jackson as he gets a feel for the stage and practices what will become the final show routine. We also get glimpses at the production videos meant to be shown on the giant screen during the actual concerts. Interspersed are interviews with the musicians, the dancers and the crew, talking about how they feel to be working with Michael Jackson.
One thing is clear in this movie: at age 50, Michael Jackson was still an amazing performer. Though it’s all rehearsals, and at times, Jackson works at half speed to conserve himself for the real thing, his talent blasts through the screen. His voice, though at times a little soft in the mix, remains a great instrument. His dancing is still crisp and energetic, more than keeping up with his crew of much younger backup dancers.
But Jackson is performing his greatest hits, which means that there’s very little in the film that’s new. And while he’s a great performer in the movie, he’s always been a great performer, and there’s decades of better edited, better shot video footage out there available to any Michael Jackson fan. And there are parts that are just disappointing, like the Jackson 5 medley, where Jackson barely sings. They keep trying to promote it as a concert film, but it doesn’t hold up as one.
The unique appeal of this movie would’ve been seeing the show that never was, and perhaps getting more into the creative process behind it. But there’s not really much of it here. What glimpses we do get are pretty fascinating, revealing a micromanaging Jackson that’s as insightful as he is mysterious. “Play it like you’re getting out of bed,” he says to his musical director, a brilliant piece of instruction that shows Jackson’s pure artistic instinct. Perhaps there could’ve been more of that. Because while the performances are great, it’s obvious that they were never meant to be shown to the public. Shots aren’t uniform, footage having to be culled from several rehearsals. I don’t want to downplay what they’ve created here: it must’ve been difficult to pull all that footage together, but there are too many points where the camera fails to capture something vital, where they’re forced to cut away to something that isn’t particularly interesting.
The movie pretends to have a measure of finality embedded inside its frames. This is it, as if the sum total of this artist’s work will be found somewhere in this collection of scenes taken from a concert that never happened. What I’d like to point out is that this isn’t it; that the legacy of Michael Jackson is better preserved in the years of music that he has left us, in albums and in videos and in all the things we had that helped us experience his art. This is It is a competently produced film, elevated by the sheer talent of its subject. But I can’t help but feel that it’s largely unnecessary.
My Rating:
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