This Is It

Director: Kenny Ortega
Starring: Michael Jackson, Kenny Ortega
Release Date: October 28, 2009
Length: 1 hour 51 minutes

One of the world’s greatest performers of all time had one last show for everyone to see, and because he died just before the performance, This Is It is what we unfortunately didn’t get a chance to witness. This footage was originally meant for a DVD of the making of the show. When Michael Jackson sadly passed, co-creator of the show, Kenny Ortega decided to turn this into a movie, so everybody could see what Michael still had to give to the world. The film opens with dancers at the auditions for the show, each individually talking to the camera about how much Michael Jackson has inspired them, and how much they love him, which was touching and interesting to see. This was obviously a film that did not display any of Michael Jackson’s personal life whatsoever, which I was thankful for because I honestly didn’t have quite an opinion on the matter. If you are looking for a biopic on Michael Jackson’s personal life with family and friends, look again. This film shows how his crew and producers and dancers, etc… became his family, and I was much more interested by that. This may sound ridiculous, but after seeing some of the rehearsals for certain numbers, it made me wish that if he hadn’t died and the show did go on, I would have really liked to have seen that concert. Some performances such as the rehearsals for Thriller and Smooth Criminal, made me feel like I was watching the concert and I was amazed.  At the same time though, with those incredible rehearsals, also came the ones where he was just singing on stage for three minutes by himself, which dragged for me. Many people might not realize this, but Kenny Ortega is truly a music and dance extraordinaire. A lot of young people only know him for High School Musical, in which case they may dislike him or love him. But I had no idea Kenny Ortega directed the film, not to mention, the co-creator with Jackson for the show. And only about a year ago did I find out he choreographed Dirty Dancing, which I loved as well. It is obviously incredibly sad about Michael Jackson’s death, but it is also sad to see how hard him and Kenny Ortega and everyone else worked, and what they were going to show the world with this amazing concert. Seeing this movie will definitely make you realize what a talented man Michael Jackson was, and what a shame it was that someone with that talent died so young, but in no way is this film a tearjerker. I was glad there was no montage of pictures or videos of him singing or laughing toward the end. This film isn’t completely like watching a concert, but it’s not exactly a documentary either. This made it hard for me to critique certain things, but I do know that I overall enjoyed THIS IS IT very much.