THIS IS IT, Michael Jackson

A sincere, unassuming homage to the greatest pop icon who ever lived...
Like most kids who grew up in the early to mid 90's, my life story and memories can be relived through a string of MJ's hits...Bad for example reminds me of the time in Kindergarten, when my teenage sister the big bully prevented me from watching Tom and Jerry so that she could practice the killer moves from the video (back when we only had one TV and one VCR player). Heal the World brings back memories of being extremely excited when my dad bought the Free Willy videotape at the Times Bookstore in Penang Plaza (back then there were only originals mind you) and watching it with my cousins. Black and White reinforced my prepubescent secret crush on Macaulay Culkin, while Scream speaks to the teenage angst that was slowly developing inside of me. To put it simply, I would never call myself a HUGE or obsessed MJ fan. But I was never in the group that didn't like him either. Nevertheless, having grown up to all things Michael, his death did affect me in a way, as, put aside the tabloid frenzy of recent years, we have lost THE King of Pop and with him the music that have shaped and touched our lives in many great ways. Without a question, This Is It was something I had to watch, regardless of my apolitical stance (or can I say amichael?:P) on his personal life and the issues surrounding his death.

A lot of people are a bit confused about this movie. Let me set you straight. If you are looking to get all the sordid details pertaining to his death from this movie..you will be disappointed. If you are looking to get a full biography of the guy .. you will be disappointed. If you want to know more about his experiments with drugs and plastic surgery...you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a great MOVIE proper with good lighting, sound, special effects and cinematography..well you will also be disappointed. Coz This Is It is none of those things. The pseudo-movie is just a collection of raw footages shot during MJ's rehearsals for the This Is It come back tour which should have happened in July at the 50 sold out shows in the London O2 arena. Yet for all that it is lacking, in your normal expectations of a movie, This Is It had the pull factor to mesmerise both fans and non-fans alike and this is solely attributed to its simplicity in depicting the legendary artiste at his best.
This is not a conventional movie. Therefore this will not be a conventional review either (but then again.. Rina and conventional don't really know each other :P) I will not go into the brief synopsis of what you might aspect of the basic storyline/plot coz basically there are none. It just started with shots of interviews of MJ's dancers some of whom have travelled more than half way across the world to audition and be a part of the King of Pop's supposed monumental comeback. OK as far as objective reviews are concerned.. this part comes across as rather cheesy and melodramatic. Then it immediately started with the number Wanna Be Starting Something showing the dance and singing rehearsals which were extremely impressive (in my point of view at least) despite being a pure rehearsal shot and MJ not even putting his 100% effort. I guess it helps also that we have not seen the man in action in a very long time. What followed was a series of rehearsals, choreography and would be special effects of the concert. The dance number for They Don't Really Care About Us for example was one of the best featured here. I especially liked how the team was practicing and putting the moves together whilst the director and technical team explained to the camera how the final effect was going to be (with all dancers duplicated to form rows and rows of thousands of dancers) and Michael joined them a little bit later and started spearheading the training session and he was just amazing. Not only was he effortlessly good and the choreography to die for but even with minimal effort at a mini run through, he still exudes this great presence that made the whole thing work! There were a lot other numbers that also featured such great choreography and performance. But They Don't Really Care About Us was my favourite. The guitar solos for Black and White by Orianthi Panagris on the other hand was simply mesmerising and here for the first time you could see that the great pop legend had a match in presence and awesomeness.

Even the slow numbers like I'll Be There, Human Nature and You Are Not Alone will make you stare transfixed at the screen, mumbling the words to the all familiar songs softly to yourself. Another one of my favourite was his performance of Billy Jean in the classic sequined pants with the single stripe on both sides that we've all come to know and love. Michael did a solo dance number here with his dancers cheering him on in awe. This was quite amusing and cute as he got all shy and embarrassed at the end and asked his team to not encourage him too much as he had to conserve his energy for the real event.

There were many more of these moments as you see a lighter, gentler, softer and kinder side to this pop icon that has hardly been portrayed by the media. Making him almost like any ordinary man. Instead of the barrage of "wacko jacko" that we have been constantly fed by the press, what we see is a humble, down to earth yet firm and efficient professional. Michael was always kind to his musicians and dancers, speaking to them nicely, treating them with respect but at the same time exuding enough firmness and authority to get things the way he wanted; a true mark of devoted perfectionist who knew exactly what he wanted. Many times you will hear him tell his cast and crew how he wanted the songs to sound EXACTLY like how he wrote it. And he was right, that was why people would go and watch the concert. You will never see him throw a diva tantrum or scream like a tortured artiste even though at one part of the movie one of the musicians was clearly getting on his nerves with the dude's callous attitude. You also get to see the child-like quality about Michael that has been reported extensively but never really seen by the public. During the rehearsal of an old Jackson 5 number, he was not able to sing and kept complaining about the volume of the music on his headset and how it was almost drilling into his brain. He just looked so fragile and timid when he was telling this to the concert director Danny Ortega that you just wanted to run over and give him a hug! Seriously! :)

The movie is not without flaws though. One of my all-time favourite MJ's hit was Smooth Criminal. Call it bad editing or maybe the result of an unfinished product but I thought the black and white intro video for Smooth Criminal just came across as rather lame and tacky. Despite the fact that they were able to edit MJ into a very old famous movie, it became very distracting and annoying once the dancing and singing begin and was interspersed with machine gun sounds from the footage. And oh you also don't get to see the legendary fall-forward-in-unison move that is the trademark of the Smooth Criminal choreography. Sigghhh..

Whilst cynics may call this a cash grab fest released to further exploit this legendary artiste, I am sure that they too would agree that looking at this great man with his eyes alight with excitement at the prospect of putting on a great show after such a long hiatus, is indeed refreshing. Even the bad camera angle, sharp editing and poor sound quality in certain instances just added to the charm of this sincere and unassuming movie. Fan or not, go watch this with an open mind and for two and a half hours at least, you can forget all the scandals and tragedy surrounding MJ and just focus on excellent music and pure clean entertainment! This at least makes This Is It worth your RM10. And if all else fail, you would at least get to sing along to all the greatest hits and be transported back to your beautiful childhood/ younger days' memories.