I could go on and on and about who MJ was to me. I really could, but I will not do it. I just want to say that MJ is the man behind the music that brings my entire family together. Musically the 6 of us do not agree on anything fully except MJ. That is who he is to me.
Gearing up for a 50 show extravaganza in London, the final few months of Michael Jackson's life were spent in Los Angeles rehearsing and luckily a bunch of cameras were there to capture the events. Make no mistake, though, this is essentially a concert film. It is not a hard hitting behind the scenes documentary or a study on the man behind the music, it is a concert film first and foremost. There are behind the scene moments and a few glimpses into who MJ was, but mostly this is about the music. Each song has an accompanying story, or process, whether it is work on the green scene, or MJ trying to figure out tempos, or just dances, but each number takes up a good chunk of time and then we are rewarded with a rehearsal performance of each number, except Thriller which actually looks kind of finished because it was able to be done in Post Production with the would be 3D effects. The cameras are not very invasive, but that may be because MJ was aware they were there and he does not give anything away.
The movie shows MJ to be in good shape, with swift moving feet, flexible limbs and having a deep sense of passion that music and that his show can fuel the fire to change the world. He is just as soft spoken on stage as we see off stage, which is disarming because the best always have a swagger. Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Alex Rodriguez, Tiger Woods. These guys all have swagger and they all carry themselves with it. Jackson does not, at least not until the music hits. He is a man who was born to perform and he is phenomenal even at 75%. Of course, that is what makes someone the best, when their 75% is better than most people's 100%. Jackson is surrounded by dancers who are all in their 20s, all shirtless and with ripped bodies and sick dance moves, but it is still Jackson we watch and it is still Jackson they wish they were. Actually some of my favorite stuff in the film is watching the dancers. The movie opens on the dancers talking about the chance to be on stage with Michael and then in many moments we get reactions from these dancers as they just stand and watch Michael move or sing and it is obvious this is a dream come true.
The concert footage is fun, yes. It is wonderful to watch Michal pop, lock, glide, and smoothly hit every move and it is fun to listen to him softly croon the songs as he converses his voice, but I was much more interested in the other stuff. I loved listening to Michael talk about holding notes, or waiting an extra beat for the audience. MJ seems to know exactly how to work a crowd into a frenzy and he is the master of his own show. My absolute favorite moment in this movie is watching MJ try and tell his conductor about the pacing for "The Way you make me feel." MJ is meticulous about what he wants and it shows MJ for being kind of mean and a bit of a perfectionist, but also as someone who understands what he wants. He says he wants it to start like "you are just getting out of bed." Then he takes the conductor through a series of tempos and vocalizing about what it is all supposed to sound like and how certain key changes need to hit at this exact moment. Then, when we see that song performed, we get it. We understand why MJ is the best and why he sold out 50 shows in London as quickly as he did.
People older than me had Elvis and the Beatles. I had MJ. MJ was a cultural icon, whose music videos were premiered on prime time because they were events. This concert would have been an event, with MJ CGIed in classic black and white movies and having a shoot out with Bogart, or how Thriller transformed into 3D or all the fireworks, and lights and sounds ans guitars. MJ perfected the idea of "Go Big or Go Home." This concert film has its hits and misses and maybe it was quickly put together to make some money off of the man, but don't the fans deserve to see what it could have been like? Watching the Thriller dance on a stage does not get old and watching MJ run, leap and fly across the stage is an absolute joy because you know that is the only place where he felt in control and had any idea of who he was. I do not want to romanticize the man because I did not know him, but I know, as a fan, I loved being able to see this.
My guess is that if MJ had lived, we would have got a concert film and a behind the scenes documentary, but instead we get this hybrid thing that does not really delve deep enough into either side. Michael never performs full out vocally and he marks much of the dancing, but his attitude is right. We see the twinkle in his eye when he sees something he likes and we see a little bit of the personality and sense of humor behind the most curious person in pop culture. The interviews with musicians, dancers and collaborators never tell me enough, but they provide some nice moments and the movie shows that MJ was not afraid to let someone else shine as his absolutely sexy 24 yr old guitarist owns the stage with her confidence and axe grinding during "Black or White."
This is It is a contrived bit of sentimentality towards Michael Jackson created by Kenny Ortega who obviously loved his time with MJ. However contrived it may be though, it is also a whole hell of a lot of fun. I wanted to sing and dance my way through the whole experience. My feet and hands were tapping constantly and I had a smile on my face throughout the movie because of the music and dancing and the pure joy MJ got from doing both of them. He was a man completely unknowable which in this day and age feels so strange and this movie will not give us much of a better idea of who he was, but at least we get to see what made him happy and we get to witness a passion for performing and that is always fun for me.
Final Grade: B+
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