This Is It opens with young back-up dancers speaking to the camera about how grateful they are for the chance to work with Michael Jackson. Several cry. The audience has to wonder though, if they broke down in tears when things went well, how did they react when they heard of Michael’s death? But this is never addressed by the film, and there is no mention that the King of Pop did not in fact complete his concert, nor any suggestion that he is not still moonwalking among us.

Rehearsal footage constitutes the bulk of the film, and it tries to approximate the experience the fans would have had if they were able to attend the concert. Songs are played with the video skipping between days (and weeks) of rehearsal, so that we rarely get more than a few seconds of an uninterrupted take. Was this to make the footage livelier, or to hide when Michael got tired?

Michael sings hits such as “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” and “Smooth Criminal,” each with elaborate stage effects: MJ is inserted into a black-and-white film for a shootout with Humphrey Bogart; a new “Thriller” video is produced in 3D; and Michael climbs into a cherry picker that rises him up and sweeps him over the audienc e. This is a far cry from his previous shows, which featured Michael’s dancing as the primary spectacle, not pyrotechnics.

Occasionally we see Michael between takes, instructing dancers and fine-tuning the performance. To get the sultry tone he wants, Michael instructs a dancer to do it slower, “like you’re dragging yourself out of bed.” You can’t help but raise an eyebrow at lines like this, or contextualize hits like “Man in the Mirror” and “Black or White” with the events of the singer’s personal life.

The film ends with no mention of the pop star’s death. It simply closes with the quote:

Michael Jackson
King of Pop
Love is Forever 

That he was Michael Jackson and that he was the King of Pop I don’t contest, but let’s be honest: love isn’t forever. Michael Jackson died, and the film doesn’t simply marginalize that loss, it ignores it completely. This is the biggest oversight of the film, and robs it of its natural dramatic climax. What we are left with are glimpses of a man we learn nothing about, and the glimpses we do get are so thickly sugarcoated they arouse indigestion.< /p>

Michael is shown as a perfectionist, wanting nothing more than the absolute best show for his audience. He’s shown as someone adored by everyone around him, meek and loving, who freely blows kisses and bestows as many blessings as the Pope. Not as a man in declining health, but as someone able to keep up with dancers less than half his age. Is this the real Michael? Part of it. But isn’t it possible to show more sides of him? Wouldn’t a full portrait be the most sympathetic?

Who is Michael Jackson? The public hasn’t been this fascinated for his music alone. The film pretends the reason for the concert is simply to give fans more of what they want. But Michael only came out of retirement to contend with his rising levels of debt. He spent millions on court trials and obscure medical treatments, and at the start of rehearsal, had lost his house at Neverland Ranch. This is not a man in his prime; this is the Norma Desmond Michael, fiercely reenacting his routine of the past in an attempt to reach his former glory.

I recognize that This Is It doesn’t want to be a documentary. It wants to be a concert film. But we don’t even get a full representation of the concert, let alone Michael Jackson. Which is a shame, because Michael Jackson – as a person and as an entertainer – is fascinating. Even this one-sided glimpse of him in action is mesmerizing, but it’s all stage spectacle and planned performance. There is not one moment of the man by himself, behind the scenes. We learn no more about him than if we attended a concert.

But can we blame the director? Kenny Ortega isn’t even a director – he was Michael’s stage manager, in charge of Michael’s public image. Of course he’s going to show Michael in a positive light, and of course he’s going to edit all the rehearsals tog ether so that only the best remains. And on a technical level, This Is It makes good use of the footage it has. It integrates the various cameras on stage to make a coherent performance. But we always stay a t a distance from Michael, and rarely see him any closer than someone might in the front row of the audience. Given the nature of the events, this is understandable. No one was planning to release this theatrically.

At least the songs don’t disappoint. Public opinion may be divided on his personal life, but no one questions that Michael is the King of Pop. As a stage show, This Is It would have been spectacular. The set is impressive even from these early glimpses, and his songs still hold up after decades of radio play. In a concert film, the quality of the music is especially important, and even these toned-down rehearsal versions of MJ’s hits show him as overwhelmingly talented.

This is perhaps the biggest lure of This Is It: getting to see Michael Jackson dance and sing for the last time. It is also the film’s biggest disappointment, that we see nothing more than rehearsals of him dancing and singing. Everyone knows there’s more to Michael Jackson than his stage act, and telling audiences that we’d see him behind-the-scenes like never before in This Is It is like publicizing a photo of a man with a third arm, when you are only willing to show us the face.