Michael Jackson's "This is It" Discussion

[katemonster]

Have yall seen all the amazing reviews since it premiered? Made me even more excited... get your tickets NOW

[DisneyFreak5282]

I saw it today and I regret to say that it was not as good as I expected. For one thing, Kenny Ortega really started to get on my nerves for some reason. 112 minutes seems like an appropriate running time for this movie, and I'll admit it did pass quickly, but I feel like there's so much more they could have done with this movie. Too many interviews with unknown wannabes that I honestly didn't care about in the beginning, and I was shocked at how many of his greatest hits he didn't perform. I know, I know - this is only rehearsal footage and it's all they had to work with and blah blah blah, but I feel like it could have used something more, but I don't know what. Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie, it just wasn't as good as I expected.

[xxhplinkxx]

Those bastards, how dare they disappoint you?! Let's bring Michael back from the dead and have an entire re-shoot.

[AwallaceUNC]

I saw it at midnight and had a very different take. Completely involving from beginning to end. I was riveted. Michael is in rare form. All those reports of his inability to sing, weak body, balding head, loss of dance skill, etc. will forever be silenced after the world sees this movie. An artist with Michael's track record couldn't possibly perform even half of his major hits in concert... the man could literally put out a 4-disc Greatest Hits album and still have people complaining about omissions. I can't say that there's anything missing that seems more glaring than any other song would be had it been left out instead, nor does any song that made the cut seem like a surprise. Not only is Michael's mind-blowing talent on display throughout (and yet he is, as he repeatedly reminds his crew, holding back during rehearsals) -- including live singing instead of the playback that he relied on so heavily in the '90s -- but there's a lot of personality in the film. Michael turns out to be a funny guy, perhaps something we didn't realize about him before. I didn't find Ortega annoying at all, but then I'm something of an Ortega fan. He certainly crafted an excellent film with This Is It, bringing in documentary elements and stunning short films along the way but keeping the focus on complete, multi-angle, well-edited performances from the King.

If you see one movie during the next two weeks, make sure that This Is It.

-Aaron

P.S. Haunted Mansion fans will especially want to be sure they see the movie!

[blackcauldron85]

from the King.

Elvis is not pleased.

[DisneyFreak5282]

Those bastards, how dare they disappoint you?! Let's bring Michael back from the dead and have an entire re-shoot.

...That's not what I was implying. At all.

I had heard that they had over 100 hours of footage and to condense that into an hour and 52 minutes that means they were obviously leaving tons of stuff out. Michael liked to have each and every one of his rehearsals taped so he could review them at home and decided what he did and didn't like as well as make the decision about what would and wouldn't work when it came time for his actual concerts. Which is why I'm sure they had some other songs and things like that for this tour, considering the first bit of footage they showed had a title screen indicating that that segment they were about to show was filmed in April, two months before he died. But since they had all this footage and they had to eliminate so much of it, there's only so much they could have included, I just wish they included more or made it longer...

[Just Myself]

Elvis is not pleased.

He's indifferent, actually.


King of rock


King of pop



Saw the film this afternoon and was blown away. For a concert film that was never supposed to happen, it was spectacular and very well done. If this was Michael holding back, those concerts would have been mind blowing. The only regret I had was the fact that the pre-shot sequences made especially for the concerts weren't in 3D, but that's a minor gripe.


Cheers,
JM

[Ting Ting]

I still say profiting off his death is jacked up.

[AwallaceUNC]

Which is why I'm sure they had some other songs and things like that for this tour

It's possible, but unlikely. Someone like Sheryl Crow might rehearse 50 songs for a tour, prepared to break out any of those at random and shake up her set list each night. This is because Sheryl Crow walks out on stage with a guitar and has a small band (one that will have rehearsed those same songs) to back her up. For the most part, she stands at the mic, strums her guitar, and sings to the audience. That kind of performance can make for a very good show (in fact, those might be my favorite kind).

Michael Jackson's shows, however, were very different. He did not just walk up to the microphone and sing. Each song in a Michael Jackson concert was a large-scale stage production. Dozens of people were involved -- musicians, sound effects guys, lighting crews with a complicated scheme of very specific cues, a directing crew, dancers with elaborate choreography specific to each song, back-up singers, stunt men, etc. Michael Jackson could never -- or almost never -- take a request at random from his audience. "She's Out of My Life", maybe, but not "Scream" or "P.Y.T." or "Bad". It could cost a million dollars just to get one of those songs ready. His are not the kind of shows that rehearse a lot of songs and then decide which ones to stage at the beginning of each night. That would be like a movie or Broadway show building entire sets and casting extras for scenes they were only considering actually filming.

There's no question that there's a lot of footage that went unused for the movie (a lot of the unused footage will reportedly wind up on the Blu-ray as extras, though). How much of that footage featured Michael Jackson isn't clear. I'm sure a lot of it did but a lot of it didn't. He was very involved in the process, but it would be unusual for the headlining artist to be on stage for hundreds of hours of rehearsal, or anywhere close to it. But whatever MJ footage went unused, I doubt it includes full productions of additional songs. If that kind of footage existed, I can't imagine Sony and Ortega wouldn't have added five or ten minutes onto the movie in order to include them.

-Aaron

[AwallaceUNC]

I still say profiting off his death is jacked up.

I don't understand how that's worse than ignoring him because he died would be. And who's profiting? Sony, yes... but the family and estate too. And the estate needs it. And why shouldn't they profit -- all of them? The man made some amazing and very popular music. The people producing and distributing it invested a lot (often unheard of dollar amounts) in that music. The people buying that music bought a lot of it and still wanted to buy more. Michael wanted the people to want the music and he wanted the companies to give it to them. It's win-win-win. I think it's a beautiful thing that the world now appreciates Michael's artistry in a way that they've been too distracted to during the last fifteen years. It's sad that it took his death for that to happen, but is that any reason to feel bad about celebrating his music now that we (collectively) want to again?

-Aaron

[dvdjunkie]

Just returned from seeing this fantastic film, and all I can say is that all of the nay-sayers better shut-up and just watch the magic unfold on the screen.

I am 70 years old, and was really looking forward to this film, for a lot of reasons. Mainly, although I disagreed with Michael's lifestyle and his constant surgeries and living in complete weirdness, I recognized that he was one of the most, if not the most, talented people walking this earth. I have all of his music, and videos, and was privileged to see him in concert only once, but this movie makes up for all of that.

Short, at only 1 hour and 52 minutes, I am sure that the DVD release will have some added footage for all of us who want more MJ. And the theater I went to was sold out, but there was no screaming, yelling, clapping or anything like that. Everyone was there to see what Michael was planning, and never got to do. Sure their were moments of applause, and at the end when a standing ovation was given, but all in all this movie needs to be seen on a big screen with the full digital sound that only good theaters can provide.

Make it a point to go see this movie, it is only going to be in theaters for two weeks, and then it will be gone.

[Jack Skellington]

I watched it, I must say it will probably be a really memorable experience, you really should go watch it in the theatre. I bought my tickets in advance, and thank God when I did that, coz the movie was sold out and the queue looked something like what Noah's Ark looked like when all the animals were getting in.

[DisneyFreak5282]

Just returned from seeing this fantastic film, and all I can say is that all of the nay-sayers better shut-up and just watch the magic unfold on the screen.

I am 70 years old, and was really looking forward to this film, for a lot of reasons. Mainly, although I disagreed with Michael's lifestyle and his constant surgeries and living in complete weirdness, I recognized that he was one of the most, if not the most, talented people walking this earth. I have all of his music, and videos, and was privileged to see him in concert only once, but this movie makes up for all of that.

Short, at only 1 hour and 52 minutes, I am sure that the DVD release will have some added footage for all of us who want more MJ. And the theater I went to was sold out, but there was no screaming, yelling, clapping or anything like that. Everyone was there to see what Michael was planning, and never got to do. Sure their were moments of applause, and at the end when a standing ovation was given, but all in all this movie needs to be seen on a big screen with the full digital sound that only good theaters can provide.

Make it a point to go see this movie, it is only going to be in theaters for two weeks, and then it will be gone.

I agree, I'm glad I got to enjoy it in theaters. I went to the 3pm showing and there were only about 6 other people in the theater and this is the one and only time I had wished there were actually more people in the theater. I may go see it again next weekend at night because I feel like if the theater is crowded maybe people will actually react to the film as if it were a concert. Plus, these two women in the theater brought their young kids (as in the three of them were between the ages of 2 and 4). So basically my hour and 52 minutes was consumed of yelling, screaming, and the pitter-patter of feet running up and down each and every single aisle. So yes, I definitely think I need to see it a second time, at night during the weekend, the more people there are the better - it will feel like an actual concert!

[zackisthewalrus]

DVD and Blu-ray Pre-orders are already up!

Here are the special features for the Blu-ray as posted by Blu-ray.com forum member stfn:

* 1080P 1.78:1 Widescreen
* English 5.1
* Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK), Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish (Castilian), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian
* Meet the Dancers Featurette
* Meet the Band Featurette
* Meet the Vocalists Featurette
* Dancing Machine - Choreography Featurette
* This Is It: The Photo Collection
* The Unfinished Rehearsals featurette
* movieIQ(tm) featuring the "This Is It" Playlist and BD-Live connect you to real-time information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie!
* Thriller Vignette
* Smooth Criminal Vignette
* Making Smooth Criminal Featurette
* Creating A Comeback - Two-part Making of Documentary
* The Gloved One Featurette: Costumes
* Memories of Michael Featurette
* Auditions: Searching for the World's Best Dancers featurette

DVD Preorder: http://bit.ly/4rOucH

Blu-ray Preorder: http://bit.ly/2aPNM1

It's also being released on UMD for PSP, but who cares? Haha

[kbehm29]

Saw it in IMAX last night, and was blown away.

First off, he is incredible. I'm not sure what I was expecting to see, but this was not a sick man. It is a terrible shame that this concert never came to fruition - I think all people should see this movie to see what would have been and the state of mind he was in at the time of his death (not sickly, but focused on a huge event coming up in his life).

Second - this provided some closure for me. I've been a huge MJ fan all my life, even through the rough times I stood up for him. Even with all the news coverage about his death, I've never come to terms with it and this movie helped a little. Seeing him up close and personal with such recent footage in such good form.

Third - the new footage from Thriller alone is worth the price of admission.

Last - I am spoiled now. IMAX to me is more about the quality of picture and the sound. I will never be able to watch a movie in the regular theater again. The experience was incredible, and now I'm stuck with buying $13.50 tickets! It is worth it to me, though.

[Mason_Ireton]

I was sick this week so I missed it, but mom already bought the tickets last month (felt bad). Mom took my 2 other siblings to the show and they loved it, my mom was impressed with how focused Michael was on reinventing himself for this comeback.

Next week I plan on seeing it with a few friends. Can't wait and defintly gon'na purchase the dvd too.

[zackisthewalrus]

So, I'm not really sure how I feel about this film. It definitely gave insight to Michael and his creative process, but I don't know. It was kind of weird. I need to see it again before I can give a full opinion.

[disneyboy20022]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091102/ap_ ... box_office


Apparently this film has made over $101 Million Dollars worldwide just in its first 5 days from opening.......

thats pretty impressive....I might try to get to see it...i'll see how I feel depending on my infection of my belly....but I for sure want to try to see it even if I don't make it to the theaters to see it....