Michael Jackson's This Is It

Not being a huge Jackson fan I was weary of this film, but found it entertaining none-the-less. Jackson was clearly not the frail man the media presented him as, his voice and personality carrying the film, along with the fantastic performances, obviously.

Jackson's final performances are a fantastic tease of what could have been. Whilst not shown in their entirety, Jackson performs the songs as one assumes he would have done on stage. Songs such as Thriller and Smooth Criminal where to have mini movies which played along to the songs. These were shown in full, and each one looked incredible. Jackson clearly had a flair for putting together an experience, rather than just singing and dancing.

Despite the fantastic nature of the actual performances, the quality of the film in terms of actual video and audio was rather lacking. The pre-recorded video sequences were fine, as where the interviews with the cast and crew, but the performances themselves looked as though they were filmed with a hand held camera, and the audio was very weak at times, although that seemed to be because Jackson was resting his voice.

Aside from the lack of the high quality one expects of a major film studio, which was out of their control this time I suppose, the only other gripe I have with the film is that much of it plays out like it was supposed to be an extra on what I expect was going to be DVD/Blu-Ray release of the ill-fated concerts. Not that this detracts from the experience, but it seems like something you watch once you've seen the full experience and want to take a look backstage and see the creative process of it all.

As a documentary and a concert film, it stands out, but could have benefited with looking at what happened following his death and the reaction of those involved, but it s what it is, a film documentary about the This Is It concert rehearsals. It does what it says on the tin, and I can't fault it for that, but I do wish it was a little more inquisitive and there was more footage of the musicians and the dancers creating the final piece, rather than just outright performances.

Positives

Jackson is on blinding form throughout the entire thing.
The performances and everything that accompanies them looked like it would be incredible when completed.

Negatives
Too much emphasis on the low quality performance footage, but that is what everyone wanted to see, right?
Much of it looks as though it was filmed for a "Making-Of" DVD extra, and as such doesn't really play well with the big screen.

Overall

Fans of Michael Jackson will likely see this anyway, and it is worth it for them, but for others, skip it, and maybe watch it on DVD. It's a series of excellent performances, but falls short by failing to look more at how the shows were planned and prepared.