Reviewed by Adam Stephen Kelly
Featuring Michael Jackson, Alex Al, Nick Bass, Michael Bearden, Daniel Celebre, Mekia Cox,
Misha Gabriel, Chris Grant, Judith Hill, Dorian Holley, Bashiri Johnson, Charles Klapow, Jonathan Moffett
UK certification PG | UK RRP £22.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 107 minutes | Directed by Kenny Ortega
On June 25 2009, the world lost Michael Jackson – a man considered by many to be the most famous and beloved individual to have ever graced the planet (and considered by the rest of us to be nothing but an insane kiddy-fiddler – Ed).
Jackson – in my opinion, the biggest star in the history of music by eons (sorry, Elvis) – lost his life in what has since been ruled as a homicide, just a week shy from the beginning of his final curtain call, the 50 concerts scheduled for London. Of course, they never took place, but the two hours of rehearsal performances captured for Michael’s own personal collection and now released for the public truly show that really, This Is It. With 22 rehearsal performances, This Is It is a real showcase of the King of Pop like never before, proving to all the non-believers and the rumour mills that he still had it, that he had remained at the very top of his game and hadn’t faltered an inch. Michael performs as well as I have ever seen him, if not better, being simply phenomenally both vocally and with his unequalled ability to dance and jive and pretty much just totally own the stage.
Aside from the 22 rehearsal performances, the film also ventures behind the scenes into set construction, lighting and pyrotechnics, which provided an interesting look into creating the sheer wonderment, as well as the photography for the cinematic content of the concerts which were to be shown on the main screen behind the on-stage action to introduce and accompany performances, such as a ghoulish graveyard scene for Thriller shot in 3D, and a brilliant 1930s Chicago mob shoot out set to Smooth Criminal from an actual motion picture, with new content flawlessly integrated and Michael himself edited into various shots. The set pieces are amazing, varying from a huge spider that crawls on stage with Michael inside in Thriller, to concert classics like the cherry picker for Beat It. You can rubbish however many claims Michael’s parents make about the film, like it containing body doubles, etc. As director Kenny Ortega said, when the fans watch the film they will clearly see that in every frame it is the authentic King of Pop, and that is absolute gospel. The only gripes I have with the film is that the opening minute, which consists of interview snippets with some of the auditioning dancers, comes across as scripted and acted out just for the film, with the last three words uttered being: “This is it.” The second peeve is that This Is It is introduced as “a film by Kenny Ortega”. He did a great job directing and choreographing, but it’s Michael’s film, and I just felt that it was unnecessary.
I can wholeheartedly say that This Is It would have been the greatest show of all time. So masterfully choreographed and performed that it would have blown away every single member of the audience on all 50 of those concerts. The only reason I’m not giving the film five stars is simply because it is what it is – a film – and I would have much rather reserved that for seeing the show live and in person. Sadly of course that will never happen, but we have this as a relic of what it would have been: a perfect end.
EXTRAS **** The two-disc edition has a cornucopia of bonus features. On Disc One are:
the making-of featurette Staging the Return: The Adventure Begins; another making-of featurette, this one called Staging the Return: Beyond the Show; The Gloved One costumes featurette; Memories of Michael featurette; Auditions: Searching for the World's Best Dancers featurette; The Unfinished Rehearsals featurette; and the theatrical trailer. Disc Two has three featurettes: Meet the Dancers; Meet the Band; and Meet the Vocalists.