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I thought it was great... even in rough form, the numbers were fantastic, and the choreography was (for the most part) on-point...
This movie just reinforced what some of us read in those interviews with people who worked with Michael Jackson, that while he's very loose and is right at home on that stage, he DOES NOT PLAY when it comes to his music... as one of the band members said, you'd better know your stuff when it comes to Mike's songs, because if you don't he will surely let you know... and I LOVED seeing that part of Michael...
And I know how this is going to sound, but I don't give a drizzling shit: I also loved how instinctive he was as an artist... he didn't bring a gang of "logical" explanations or just call off notes when his musicians got it wrong, he would sing the parts in the way he wanted them to be played... he'd tell a cat to "let (a synth part) simmer"... he'd tell the band leader to play something as if he just got dragged out of bed... he'd talk about how he'd "feel" the music and encouraged the others to feel it as well... that's all instinct, and it was beautiful to see...
What also struck me was how in awe the younger performers were while watching him work. Of course, the film opens with (oftentimes teary) testimonials to the camera from the dancers about how great it's going to be be working with Michael (capital M), but I really didn't get it until Ortega would cut to them watching the performances from the arena floor... this was more than just employees pretending to root for the cat who's paying them to do their thing, they were in genuine awe of this 50-year old man who had chosen them to help stage his comeback...
All of the musical numbers worked. I don't know, nor care, which numbers were lip-synched. No diss, I just know that they all worked as performances (or sketches of performances) for me... Remember how Quincy Jones said that Michael's nickname was Smelly, because when he heard something funky he'd turn his nose up in excitement? Well, I got that thought near the end of that one number (fuck, I can't remember off-hand what it was, but when the music shifted to that funky coda, that's what I thought of)...
And once again, Michael's knowledge came to the forefront during these numbers: the way he instructed (the lovely) Judith Hill on-the-fly during I Just Can't Stop Loving You, the way he coached the blonde guitarist during her solo on Beat It (yeah, I got a little choked up when he told her, "This is your moment... this is your moment... and we are going to be here for you")... again, it was thrilling to see this coaching and teaching side of Michael Jackson...
I think that this is the key as to why the movie just worked for me, as it was more than being about Michael getting on stage and running through his hits in order to make some extra bread; it seemed like he was genuinely interested in showing everyone how to do things "the right way" on stage, things that they could take with them once the tour was over... just dope to watch...
I liked the rapport that Michael and Kenny Ortega had... how Ortega joked with Michael, kept him loose, sparred with him yet treated him with respect, and held Michael's hand (figuratively speaking) at times... I only wish that we could have seen a couple of minutes of Michael and Kenny meeting up to toss around ideas at the beginning of the film... again, nothing too long, just a couple of minutes of them shooting the shit about what Michael's vision for the show was, even though we now know that it was constantly evolving...
And I also think that Kenny Ortega did a great job cobbling all of this footage together to give us a rough assemblage of what the finished show was going to be...
This would have been one hell of a concert, though part of me believes that some of the things we saw here (such as the big bulldozer during Earth Song and the 40's inserts before Smooth Criminal) would have been pilloried as "corny" and "cheesy" and "out of touch" by some in the media...
This was a really enjoyable experience, and it's really sad that we won't see the finished product... ________________________________________________________________________ http://www.youtube.com/user/punannydiaries
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