A reminder of Michael Jackson’s talent

 Michael Jackson was in the midst of planning and creating arguably the most epic concert anyone has ever scene.

Simply put, “This is It” consisted of clips taken from the rehearsals leading up to Jackson’s tour. It is not the typical movie experience that we all expect when going to the theatres. It was like getting a special invite to personally watch how Jackson creates and develops his musical genius.

There were very simple scenes where it was just Jackson and his band backstage going over how a certain song should sound and there were other scenes like the rehearsals for “Thriller” that involved creating an entire production of a graveyard scene with all of the dancers in very elaborate “dead” costumes.  There were also a number of other small scenes they filmed to play during the concert. It was cool to see how they actually created them.

The production highlighted easily the most incredible dancing I’ve ever seen in my life. At 50 years of age, Jackson could still move like he did when he was 20 and his backup dancers had this incredible flare about them. Their moves made my jaw drop.  

This isn’t a typical movie critique because I can’t really say that I have too much to actually critique about the movie since it wasn’t really a movie.  I think Kenny Ortega, who directed this film as well as the actual performance that would have happened, wanted us to witness just how incredible this concert would have been and how talented Jackson was.   Also, “This is It” was aimed to celebrate his life and help us to remember Michael Jackson purely for his musical genius. 

“This is It,” also served as something more than just showing us what could have been. I think that a lot of us became caught up in Jackson’s issues off the stage and we forgot how extraordinarily talented he truly was.  “This is It” reminds us that this man was an extremely gifted singer and dancer.  While watching the production, we are reminded of his musical presence and how he embraced and shared his passion for music with everyone around him.  I think his passion for his music and the people around him are what gave Michael this unmatched musical presence.  

People always call Jackson the King of Pop, but I honestly never really understood why.  I think “This is It” shows us why he was, and still remains, the King of Pop.