Katrin Figge

‘This Is It’ focuses on rehearsals for Michael Jackson’s comeback shows, planned for London beginning in July. (AP Photo)

‘This Is It’? Maybe For Jackson Fans

It’s not that I don’t like Michael Jackson. In fact, I think he was an outstanding musician, dancer and entertainer, and several of his songs have made it onto my iPod playlist, with each of them reminding me of different phases of my life.

But as much as I enjoyed his music, I always had mixed feelings about Jackson as a person, given the controversy about child abuse, his plastic surgery, skin diseases and the fact that he slept in an oxygen tent.

When he passed away, it didn’t make me cry. On the contrary, I was unnerved by the resulting hype and just rolled my eyes when there was yet another TV special about him and, in every single bar, his songs were played over and over again.

So when my sister and her boyfriend — himself a dancer and somewhat infected with “King of Pop” fever — asked me to join them to watch “This Is It” when I visited Singapore last weekend, I was reluctant, but eventually agreed to tag along.

I expected the film to be a tear-jerker and overly dramatic, and the opening minutes seemed to confirm my fears, as the dancers recruited to be a part of Jackson’s comeback tour said, with tears in their eyes, how honored and blessed they had been to work with this larger-than-life artist.

However, the film then went on to focus on Jackson’s rehearsals from April to June of this year for his comeback shows planned for London beginning in July.

Kenny Ortega, Jackson’s creative partner and director of “This Is It,” edited almost 100 hours of material into a two-hour documentary. The result is — unexpectedly, at least for me — not boring at all: we see a great musician, maybe not at the peak of his fame anymore, but still worth watching, and observe a man planning his comeback with almost military precision.

At times, Jackson looks exhausted and fragile — maybe because of his slim figure, or maybe because he doesn’t go full speed all the time, since these are only rehearsals. But then, when he starts to dance and sing, he is the king again and his crew are left in awe of his talent.

Contrary to the tagline of the documentary, “Like You’ve Never Seen Him Before,” the film doesn’t show the authentic, private person behind the King of Pop facade. Jackson looks like the public has always seen him: his pale face, the grotesque nose, his enormously big hands that don’t seem to go along with his slim frame, and wearing black shades and flashy costumes most of the time.

The most interesting parts of the documentary are the moments in which Jackson speaks and gives instructions to the crew. Friendly, calm and in a soft voice, but very determined nonetheless, he tells them what to do differently. Often, these instructions end with a “Thank you, God bless you.” After having problems with the sound during one of his songs, he informs his crew about the difficulties, but quickly adds that he was telling them “with love, L-O-V-E, love.”

And when the King of Pop smiles, he suddenly looks like the young boy with the afro hairdo again, who danced and sang his way into the hearts of his fans, many of whom remained loyal to him throughout his entire career.

This impression strengthens even more when Jackson talks about how humans destroy the earth instead of respecting and rescuing it. He sounds like a 10-year-old when saying that illegal logging in tropical rain forests makes him “really angry,” and the innocence in his voice doesn’t seem to be faux-naive or pretend.

Even though “This Is It” only shows fragments of Jackson’s planned comeback, it is obvious that it would have been a gigantic show, with stunning visual effects, including a newly-shot video clip for his “Earth Song” and the legendary “Thriller,” featuring scary-looking grave diggers, monsters and a tremendous spider that crawls out of the screen onto the stage.

Still, this film will be most enjoyed by Jackson’s many fans, because it gives them the chance to reunite with their idol for one last time — a theory proven by my sister’s boyfriend, who moonwalked his way out of the movie theater and kept singing “Billie Jean” for the rest of the evening.

For people like me, however, who are skeptical from the beginning, “This Is It” can be surprisingly entertaining as well. Even though the film didn’t help me to understand or get closer to the real person behind the superstar, it was one hell of a trip down memory lane as I watched Jackson performing the songs that so strongly remind me of my youth.

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