Film review: This is it

Published on Wednesday 28 October 2009 21:20

THIS IS IT (PG) ** DIRECTED BY: KENNY ORTEGA

IF ONLY this was it. Compiled from over 100 hours of rehearsal footage, this behind-the-scenes film of the Michael Jackson concerts that never were is unlikely to be the last word on the self-anointed King of Pop, given the posthumous feeding frenzy that has once again turned him into a licence to print money.

Sony paid $60 million for the rights to This Is It, so big things are expected at the box office. Alas, if the poorly attended public screening I was at yesterday morning in London's Leicester Square is anything to go by, demand to see Jackson on the big screen might well have been overestimated.

Having said that, the film itself is probably as good as could be expected under the circumstances. Though there's plenty of messianic-style reverence from his dancers and crew members, the film as a whole is not quite the sickeningly sycophantic spectacle it could have been (it's certainly no worse than similarly self-serving promo films from the likes of U2, Madonna or The Rolling Stones). Nor is it the ghoulish freak fest some were perhaps hoping it would be.

As for what the shows themselves might have been like, This Is It certainly confirms their potential wow factor.

Still, beyond providing an insight into the machinations of putting on such a massive stadium extravaganza, This Is It doesn't have enough revelatory, caught-on-the-fly footage of Jackson to raise it above the level of a well-produced DVD extra.