Is the title missing a question mark....This is It?

Robert_duder

I am not one to watch concert videos. I am not sure I've even sat through an entire concert video and I still can say I haven't because I just couldn't make it through Michael Jackson's successful This Is It. I watched almost the entire thing before I gave up. I love Michael Jackson's music as much as the next person. I grew up with him, one of my favourite anthologies was the History album and I was shocked about his death as well. I suppose with all that and the hype that was and is Michael Jackson my expectations of his final concert/film were reasonably high. What I expected was some of his greatest music mixed with his charismatic and brilliant stage presence, musical genius and a majority of behind the scenes footage we have never seen, or could never see and that is where This Is It hits a brick wall. It hyped itself as 'behind the scenes', Michael's last days, and there is virtually none of that. The scenes are the most mundane, pointless moments in putting together this concert. The music is a mish mash of various moments in his career but nothing really moves you or shows you anything that really makes you want to see more.

It bodes well for the people who put together Michael Jackson's last concert that they hired a legitimate director like Kenny Ortega. Ortega's credits include a host of TV Shows and Disney musicals and I would have hoped he could have put together something with more than just clips and short snippets of music and more of a story. I guess I just wanted something that really just paid the ultimate homage to a man who is truly a musical legend. I wanted to be moved by his music the way he has always done but for me This Is It was a total dud and did none of that. At the same time this is strictly my personal opinion of the film because I know many fans and concert lovers adore this movie or at the very least enjoyed it so maybe I'm not the right person to review this. I score a 2 because it did so well and many love the film so they must have done something right. However, if you're like me and not a huge concert video person you might wanna steer clear and simply watch Youtube videos of Michael Jackson because then you can put together your own homage to the King of Pop. 2/10

score 2/10

Robert_duder 5 July 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2274653/