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Michael Jackson's This Is It
"Like you've never seen him before." "Discover the man you never knew." These taglines must have been lifted from some marketing textbook somewhere because they bear no relation to the content of this film. What is presented is exactly the man we knew, exactly as we've seen him before. The film does nothing to vanquish the image of the unpersonable yet undeniably talented automaton with a firm detachment from reality, it merely confirms it.
With no clear input into the film aside from allowing the cameras to be pointed at him, This Is It is a behind-the-scenes expose of the concert but, unfortunately, not of the man. We don't see Jackson relating to anyone on a personal level. What we want to see is that there is something beyond the man we see in the tabloids; an actual human. But he never let's his guard down; never lets his mask slip. We don't see the man, we only see the performer. Maybe the performer is the man? Given that Jackson has been performing since he could recite his ABC's, this may well be the case. What we get, however, is a slightly loathsome ‘Church Of Michael’ feel about the production and if that doesn't make you feel nauseous, then the cloying sentimentality of the post credits sequence certainly will.
The film is loosely structured into the form of the intended concert and from what we see here, had the shows gone ahead this would no doubt have made a spectacular concert movie. Certain scenes betray the original intention to release the concert film in 3D, and there was brief talk of this film receiving the same treatment, but ultimately the available 3D sequences were too few to justify it. It's a pity because this at least may have made the film a worthwhile cinematic experience. As it is, this roughly cobbled together montage of HD and SD rehearsal footage struggles (and ultimately fails) to meet the minimum requirements expected of a cinematic presentation, being more at home as ‘extra features’ on a DVD.
The King Of Pop is dead but the merchandise juggernaut rolls on. It's difficult not to be cynical of the true purpose of this cash-in, it's clear intention being to milk the rehearsal footage of the lost concert tour prior to its inevitable DVD and BD release. The footage is not without worth, however; far from it, in fact. The film confirms what a unique creature Michael Jackson was. Nobody moved quite like Jackson. Nobody sounded quite like him either. That his infectious brand of pop has inspired two generations of budding performers is undeniable and the footage presented confirms why. It's just that this material will be put to much better use in future films about the man than it is here.
Had the producers not been in such a rush to push this content into the (paying) public realm in a dash to redeem the cash lost on the subsequent concert series and to catch the current wave of Jackson mania before it dissipates, this could have been that film. It could indeed have been ‘It’. Ironically, the determination by others to build their fortunes on his popularity probably is the story of the man. I guess there's some unintended subtext to the movie in that regard.
Stuart Jamieson
www.thisisit-movie.com
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