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“This Is It” is a documentary about the rehearsals Michael Jackson had before his 50-concert tour in London. He brought in dancers from around the world to help in his performances. Videos of his rehearsals with dancers and musicians were recorded on set, collected after Jackson’s death and composed together into a masterpiece of his final performance.
During the movie, Jackson is revealed to the world as not just the King of Pop, but the King of Pop and Performing. He was there behind the scenes and on stage to help the dancers, musicians, backup singers and special effects personnel. He would tweak little details to make them just right. He commanded the performance on stage by using all elements he wanted, such as walking from one side of the stage to the other and having the performers be an “extension of Michael” while he performed.
Jackson’s performance stamina and skills hadn’t changed a bit since his heyday. He was keeping up with, or even at times surpassing, the younger backup dancers. His techniques looked clean and amazing. There was no moonwalk, but there were smooth arm movements and quick footwork. To help magnify the appearance of his performance, Jackson cleverly used videos in the background to place emphasis on particular songs.
He had recording sessions with a green screen and some of his background dancers to help direct videos for the background to special songs. In one song, he had the background dancers dress up as soldiers and perform their number in front of a green screen. Later, the video was shown to have the soldiers multiplied by thousands doing the exact same movements as the few originals had done. In the video for “Thriller,” the background was a graveyard, but the camera filming the dancers dressed up as zombies gave them a 3-D effect.
Famous songs, like “Billie Jean” and “Thriller,” were sung alongside other hits, such as “Man in the Mirror” and “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Jackson performed these songs with short lapses for dancing segments in the performance. His voice had as much energy as his dancing, and throughout the performance Jackson enjoyed every moment he sung on that stage.
“This Is It” was Jackson’s final curtain call. One can imagine him watching this video from beyond the grave, thinking, “I knew I needed a little more simmer from the guitar there.” To every fan around the world and especially the Jackson family, this film was needed to finally have closure.
Grade: A
