'This Is It' Movie Review By KAYE VILLAGOMEZ
'Michael Jackson Commands The Public One Last Time'
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October 31, 2009, 5:55pm
In a scene from This Is It, stage director and creative partner to Michael Jackson Kenny Ortega was sorting out how to seamlessly jump from a video feed to the King of Pops live cue. As MJ suggested he would face the audience, Ortega worried how Michael would know if the grand visual already flashed his cue to take it over via live performance. Michael answered, I have to feel it.
And he did all of 111 minutes of the reel time as the Moonwalker commanded a theater filled with celebrities, musicians and journalists at the Shangri-La Mall late Wednesday night for the Sony Music screening of This Is It. At the very least, the documentary answers the question if the supposed London series of concerts will be able to get Michael back to current pop music throne.
The documentary churned out a rich material that allowed fans to experience the what could have been. This could have been really it for Michael whose flawed human side clouded the dedicated talent in the man for a long time before he announced This Is It, the 50-concert stretch. This Is It, the documentary,will not only remind people of what MJ was capable of, the movie tends to make the audience forget that its not live because of the flowing authenticity (of choreography, music and special effects) from the big screen to the viewing public. At times, we held on to self-control not to stand when Michael commanded us to. But the group that was there at the screening was not able to hold back applause almost each time a performance ended.
To say that to the very end Michael spoke of a universal language called performance to convey his message of music and love is an understatement. And the way people from all over the world are lining up to see This Is It is proof that the message was loud, clear and alive. He was experienced. The only thing that renewed the pain of his demise is the fact that This Is It WAS it. There will be no more. It all ended with a rich documentary spanning some three months of all-out planning and rehearsals.
As Michael said it a couple of times in the movie, Thats why we have rehearsals... as if justifying very forgivable mistakes; made us wonder that if an artist of his stature was humble enough to own up to miscues, then some artists of this generation having a hard time walking the fine line between fame and self-destruction should all go see this film.
When Michael announced a comeback, many doubted he had any more left in his arsenal. This Is It proved otherwise. As Michael said he wanted the hits to be in the show and wanted how the fans heard them. Only this time, almost every song had a pre-shot larger than life video screen that made the stage an extension of the superb effects happening behind MJ and the dancers.
Just how never-before-seen was the show supposed to be? The makers shot a graveyard scene in 3D for Thriller; a computer-animated dancing army of thousands for a militaristic version The Dont Care About Us; and a classic gangster plot visual support for Smooth Criminal. But even more fascinating was how Michael was faithful to the classic moves of The Way You Make Me Feel, Billie Jean, and Beat It that still captivated theater audience the very same level the special effects-laden numbers did. To see for the last time the way he moved should be on top of the list of why-go-see-this-movie. It is hard to imagine how in his very frail body (more obvious because he was dancing with a group of toned beefed-up talented young dancers), Michael moved with some kind of wired precision.
Several times during rehearsals, Michael kept saying Im trying to conserve my voice, but had to say that only to remind himself to stop giving the songs everything hes got vocally because he could not help but feel too much to perform too much during rehearsals.
As a collaborator, Michael knew he had to be involved in every step of the way. Weve heard too much about artists getting involved in their major shows but hardly got the chance to see the value of that. But here was Michael, from day one choosing the dancers who were to be his extensions on stage to making sure the musical arrangements were too good and acknowledging the efforts of every role player in the show. At one point he told the young blonde guitarist on stage with him, This is your time to shine. He also called everyone family and never failed to say, God bless you when he liked something he heard or saw.
On several aspects, This Is It may even be better than the actual show if only for the fact that Michael revealed many sides of his unguarded self both as an artist and (more impressively) as a person. There was still much more to the man we know to be the entertainer of our time but only more than a week left to catch the limited screening of this Columbia release.
While we wait for the DVD expected to shoot up the collectors item personal shelves of people everywhere, Sony Music released a CD of This Is It capturing the audio feel of the last best performances of Michaels life.
KAYE VILLAGOMEZ
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