Review of “Michael Jackson’s This is It”
We haven’t really made iblogo a place for film reviews (maybe we should!), but I saw “Michael Jackson’s This is It” on Saturday, and had to write a few thoughts:
1. MJ still had it. He looked past his prime, and a bit frail, but there’s no amount of editing that could have artificially created a few of the moments of dance/vocal brilliance in this movie.
2. Watching someone share their artistic gift is a gift itself. Not just MJ, but a few of the other dancers and musicians. Specifically the lead guitarist Orianthi, who plays so effortlessly. It’s really something to behold.
3. Director Kenny Ortega and the producers respected the audience’s media savvy. The first notes out of Michael in the start of the film are obviously live, not especially polished, and seemingly not auto-tuned. There’s other songs in the film where I think vocals were dubbed or edited, but its almost as if Ortega wanted to let everyone know in the first minute of rehearsal footage that what you were seeing and hearing was real, not doctored.
4. It’s impossible to accurately estimate how much nostalgia, and our ever-growing need for instant nostalgia, affect the way one sees this movie. No two ways about it – I was inspired watching it. But how much of the emotional connection I felt to it was I because the memories of his death and the media circus surrounding it are still so fresh? How much of my desire to see the film was because of the event-nature of its release, not just the movie itself?
Anybody else see the movie yet? Thoughts?
