'This Is It' Film: Equal Parts Thriller, Off The Wall, HIStory

USA TODAY When Sony Pictures announced that it would release a Michael Jackson film culled from tapes of rehearsals for concerts that he would never get to perform, some hearts surely jumped at the prospect of seeing one of pop's most exuberantly talented entertainers back in peak form.

Let's be honest, though: That's not what most of us expected from This Is It (*** out of four), which opens wide today. The Jackson who shook off his mortal coil on June 25 wasn't the vibrant young performer who regularly electrified stadiums, and hadn't been for many years.

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But if This Is It doesn't miraculously restore the middle-aged Jackson to his past glory, it at least offers glimpses of his bygone greatness, and poignant suggestions of what might have been.

Granted, there is fodder here for the schadenfreude addicts who reveled in Jackson's freaky foibles, and the celebrity-death junkies who have pored over every potential omen of his untimely demise at age 50. For those groups — by no means mutually exclusive — his appearance is particularly ripe for snarky and morose analysis. The skeletal frame and mutilated facial features should dissuade anyone inclined to buy father Joe Jackson's claim, reported earlier this week and quickly dismissed by a Sony rep, that a body double was used for the bulk of the film.

Luckily, director Kenny Ortega, who had been working with Jackson on the 50 shows planned for London, had access to a reported 120 hours of footage, and he smartly and lovingly emphasizes craft over flash.

Even when just marking his movements, Jackson shows signs of the physical and vocal fluidity and sheer charisma that he retained. Watching him work with his band and backup singers and dancers, one senses the excitement and joy that talented performers can bring to the often grueling process of assembling a show.

Jackson's creative team and crew emerge as engaging personalities in rehearsal and interview segments that are surprisingly funny or moving. (Jackson himself reveals a sense of humor that mitigates his more eccentric traits.)

Of course there is the music —I'll Be There, Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', Billie Jean and on and on.

Whether presented in stripped-down sequences or as part of developing spectacles that might have been truly magical — a thrilling The Way You Make Me Feel is a standout — the songs remind us that early this summer, the world lost a genuine, if genuinely troubled, star.

USA Today / Thanks Joy C!

MJ-Upbeat Note: I cannot stand how they need to put 'troubled' star! I'd like to know a little bit about 'their' life. Everyone has problems!!! Sorry for putting my opinons in these articles but these people annoy me!

I didn't put their link on purpose,,,(but I 'did' leave the editors link on top) I know that sounds childish, but I'm not a 'professional' web site so I can do what I want. :-)