Michael Jackson's This Is It: Critic Reviews

Long live the king!

Would those concerts have returned him to his magical pedestal? We'll never know the answer, of course. But watching this movie, at least we get a feel of it.

Death returned Michael Jackson's humanity, and in a curious, tentative way so too does Michael Jackson's This Is It.

This Is It a testament of a kind, and one that is no disgrace to his memory.

If This Is It doesn't miraculously restore the middle-aged Jackson to his past glory, it at least offers glimpses of his bygone greatness, and poignant suggestions of what might have been.

Must the show really go on? At best, This Is It is a mere sketch of what Jackson seemed capable of delivering in London, with the King of Pop only half-singing, half-dancing through his most rousing hits.

Watching Jackson pop, lock, rock, writhe, thrust, and clutch his crotch, even at 50 percent, leaves a feeling of woe: This show really would have been major.

For fans wondering if you should see the much-touted documentary memorial concert film Michael Jackson's This Is It, rest assured, the late King of Pop delivers.

It's an expertly packaged -- brilliantly packaged, considering how quickly the job was done -- phantasmagoria that emphasizes, quite convincingly, the energy that Michael could still draw from whatever was fueling his wraith-thin body.

It's purpose isn't to reinvent Jackson, but to recapture some of the creative magic that made the kid from Indiana a worldwide musical ambassador.

This Is It isn't quite extraordinary as non-fiction film goes. Perhaps it's something better: a work of generosity.

It's fascinating, often in ways the people behind it might not have intended. It's shiny and slick and scary and cynical, and it's an epic portrait of all the contradictions in American celebrity culture and one of American culture's biggest celebrities.

The result is one of the most revealing music documentaries I've seen.

Naivete, calculation and all, it looks like it would've been a helluva show, complete with eco-consciousness-raising, an onstage bulldozer and 3-D Thriller footage, newly created to dazzle audiences left high and dry by fate and Jackson's demise.

This Is It is Jackson's moment to shine. For two hours, he's alive and kicking it.

This may be as close as we'll ever get to knowing the strange boy-man who was one of the greatest entertainers -- onstage, on record and on video -- of the 20th century. He comes across as ageless and timeless, just like the songs he sings.

This Is It isn't Michael Jackson at his greatest; it's him preparing to be at his greatest. But just watching that preparation is gift enough.

Any evidence of eccentricity, scandal or anything else that marked our perception of Jackson the last few years is missing. In its place is a performer in full command of his gifts.

There's an incredible amount to enjoy here, and the star's fans will be in rapture. Though Jackson looks painfully thin at times, his vocal prowess and dancing ability seem to have scarcely ebbed at all in the decade he spent offstage.

I feel fairly confident that a perfectionist like Jackson would never want to be remembered by a shoddy piece of exploitation like This Is It.

It's a bouncy, engaging, slightly revealing and at times downright moving portrait of Jackson, sweating to his own oldies at 50, prepping a "comeback" he never got to make.

This is Michael Jackson unvarnished, the wizard behind the curtain and the man-child in the mirror, and it's fascinating to behold.

Without either the effect of a full concert spectacle, or up close and personal backstage intimacy, This Is It is neither one thing nor the other.

Jackson's mystery deepens, even as it dissolves between our fingers.