(no subject)
So I've been meaning to do this since we went but, yes.
Midnight Wednesday morning mom and I went to the first screening of "Michael Jackson's THIS IS IT" here in the Ville. It was my first midnight screening so it was cool hanging out in the theater while the rest of the mall was closed and stuff. I tried to get Mom to do "Dance Dance Revolution" with me but we ended up loitering in the lobby most of the extra hour we were there.
We preordered tickets online and we expected the theater to be packed but it was only maybe 30 people tops in there. The entire front section was completely empty. We sat in the first row of the middle section so we got to put our feet up on the rail, because yes, we are that juvenile.
First let me mini rant, the prices at the concession stand have always sucked but they've gotten just plain crazy. We spent ten bucks for our drinks alone, we were going to get mediums (which are about the size of a fast food restaurant large) but they convinced us to upgrade for a quarter, and these pops come with a free refill, there was no way we'd need it. It was like a freaking bucket. But it was nice to not worry about slurping the damn thing down before the movie even started.
And so, we got to go into the theater at about 20 til. I debated not even writing this because I know the opinions on Michael through my friends all vary and some people, who thankfully aren't on my journal Flists, would down right give me shit for going. I feel like everyone here can either skip over this or just appreciate what I have to say about the movie because I'm not writing this to discuss Michael or his personal life. I will say, I think his real eccentric side made way for a lot of media bullshit. I can't say what I know is true or not because frankly, I did not know him personally and don't know what was or wasn't true.
There I go getting off track, but I meant to just briefly inform you all, I was in love with him for about a year. Back in the days of the portable CD player I used to listen to his music everywhere we went, and I printed just about every picture of him that I could find. I wrote fanfic too. Yes, in the early days of fanfiction.net, and some of you may remember this, I'm talking 2001-2002, they accepted celebrity based fic and I actually made one of my first net friends through that.
So I went to the movie really looking forward to seeing him and what he had done with his show before he passed away. I didn't cry, and no one in the theater did, that I saw. The movie wasn't made as a "Michael Jackson's Last Days On Earth" thing as I had expected, it is, entirely, centered around the concert rehearsals, and I was glad for that. Michael didn't look great. I know there's a lot of room to joke there, but, he was extremely thin, and sometimes when he danced he looked like he was in quite a bit of pain. He never appeared to be strung out, he never spoke and didn't make sense, there was nothing by looking at that man and listening to him that told me he was abusing medication, had I not known that ahead of time, I would never have guessed it.
They showed a lot of inter-cutting footage of different rehearsals of his songs. The band was fantastic and so were his dancers, and Mike never fell behind them, not once. He would stop singing to dance but I imagine he was more concerned with choreography at the time than the way the music would sound. Kenny Ortega makes a couple of humorous appearances, including a part where Michael is testing a hydraulic lift.
KENNY: Ok, MJ, it goes higher than this, but this is sort of the minimum height.
MJ: Why would you tell me that?? (Laughter). You know I want to go higher!
Michael raises his hands to balance himself (he is completely encircled by the device save the space where you climb on but Kenny freaks out anyway.
KENNY: Michael, please hold on to the railing! Jesus.
It's funnier on screen, I promise.
There are two sequences where Mike works with women and watching those, you can easily at least imagine he might have been a tiny bit straight. There's a part in "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" where he hooks his arm around the girl he's singing with and yanks her up against him and even the teenage girls in the theater who had come to make fun of him shut up and stared. It's been a long time since Mike looked very sexy, but it was a seriously sexy moment. Just another thing that makes you shake your head and wish he had never become what he had.
The music is great, there's a young guitarist on the stage named Orianthi, she's releasing a solo album this year, and at one point she's playing Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo in "Beat It" and she stops at the end and Michael tells her to linger on the highest note she can play, that this is her time to shine. Something you would never see from your typical superstar headlining a show. I think quite possibly one of Michael's biggest mistakes was being so damn nice to everyone he met. You never hear stories of him throwing anything at his staff or cussing anyone out. He gave teenage girls wicked guitar solos, and wrote music about saving the planet.
Which reminds me of the CGI created for the show. There are four key pieces of CGI, one made for "They Don't Really Car About Us", where they simulated ten of his dancers to appear as 1000 behind him on a screen, which was actually really cool, another where they threw him into the film "Gilda", with Rita Hayworth, for "Smooth Criminal", and the last was a beautiful piece of CGI for "Earth Song". And as wonderfully lit and well created as it was, I felt they could have left Earth Song out of the film, it seemed to be the most lagging. Lastly there was the "Thriller" piece, with the dancers dressed a la dead people climbing out of their graves, like in the original video but th costumes are more advanced and realistic and the piece was created in 3D to make the audience jump when these people popped up against the camera lens.
And. . .yeah. There are lots of songs, the film completely revolves around the music and the dancing, with little bits interspersed. I felt for the dancers who came from all over the world to audition and got to be just about a week from working live with Michael before he passed. I was glad none of Michael's family was included, Janet, his mother, and a couple of his brothers aside, they tend to just make me grind my teeth. There's no news footage shown after his June 24th/25th rehearsal, just a simple "King of Pop" blended image with no date of birth and death.
It was very well done and very interesting to see. I loved it, I think it'll be fantastic in IMAX but there aren't any theaters close to us. So if you guys get bored this weekend or are the least bit curious, I do recommend the film, for the music, if nothing else.
Midnight Wednesday morning mom and I went to the first screening of "Michael Jackson's THIS IS IT" here in the Ville. It was my first midnight screening so it was cool hanging out in the theater while the rest of the mall was closed and stuff. I tried to get Mom to do "Dance Dance Revolution" with me but we ended up loitering in the lobby most of the extra hour we were there.
We preordered tickets online and we expected the theater to be packed but it was only maybe 30 people tops in there. The entire front section was completely empty. We sat in the first row of the middle section so we got to put our feet up on the rail, because yes, we are that juvenile.
First let me mini rant, the prices at the concession stand have always sucked but they've gotten just plain crazy. We spent ten bucks for our drinks alone, we were going to get mediums (which are about the size of a fast food restaurant large) but they convinced us to upgrade for a quarter, and these pops come with a free refill, there was no way we'd need it. It was like a freaking bucket. But it was nice to not worry about slurping the damn thing down before the movie even started.
And so, we got to go into the theater at about 20 til. I debated not even writing this because I know the opinions on Michael through my friends all vary and some people, who thankfully aren't on my journal Flists, would down right give me shit for going. I feel like everyone here can either skip over this or just appreciate what I have to say about the movie because I'm not writing this to discuss Michael or his personal life. I will say, I think his real eccentric side made way for a lot of media bullshit. I can't say what I know is true or not because frankly, I did not know him personally and don't know what was or wasn't true.
There I go getting off track, but I meant to just briefly inform you all, I was in love with him for about a year. Back in the days of the portable CD player I used to listen to his music everywhere we went, and I printed just about every picture of him that I could find. I wrote fanfic too. Yes, in the early days of fanfiction.net, and some of you may remember this, I'm talking 2001-2002, they accepted celebrity based fic and I actually made one of my first net friends through that.
So I went to the movie really looking forward to seeing him and what he had done with his show before he passed away. I didn't cry, and no one in the theater did, that I saw. The movie wasn't made as a "Michael Jackson's Last Days On Earth" thing as I had expected, it is, entirely, centered around the concert rehearsals, and I was glad for that. Michael didn't look great. I know there's a lot of room to joke there, but, he was extremely thin, and sometimes when he danced he looked like he was in quite a bit of pain. He never appeared to be strung out, he never spoke and didn't make sense, there was nothing by looking at that man and listening to him that told me he was abusing medication, had I not known that ahead of time, I would never have guessed it.
They showed a lot of inter-cutting footage of different rehearsals of his songs. The band was fantastic and so were his dancers, and Mike never fell behind them, not once. He would stop singing to dance but I imagine he was more concerned with choreography at the time than the way the music would sound. Kenny Ortega makes a couple of humorous appearances, including a part where Michael is testing a hydraulic lift.
KENNY: Ok, MJ, it goes higher than this, but this is sort of the minimum height.
MJ: Why would you tell me that?? (Laughter). You know I want to go higher!
Michael raises his hands to balance himself (he is completely encircled by the device save the space where you climb on but Kenny freaks out anyway.
KENNY: Michael, please hold on to the railing! Jesus.
It's funnier on screen, I promise.
There are two sequences where Mike works with women and watching those, you can easily at least imagine he might have been a tiny bit straight. There's a part in "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" where he hooks his arm around the girl he's singing with and yanks her up against him and even the teenage girls in the theater who had come to make fun of him shut up and stared. It's been a long time since Mike looked very sexy, but it was a seriously sexy moment. Just another thing that makes you shake your head and wish he had never become what he had.
The music is great, there's a young guitarist on the stage named Orianthi, she's releasing a solo album this year, and at one point she's playing Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo in "Beat It" and she stops at the end and Michael tells her to linger on the highest note she can play, that this is her time to shine. Something you would never see from your typical superstar headlining a show. I think quite possibly one of Michael's biggest mistakes was being so damn nice to everyone he met. You never hear stories of him throwing anything at his staff or cussing anyone out. He gave teenage girls wicked guitar solos, and wrote music about saving the planet.
Which reminds me of the CGI created for the show. There are four key pieces of CGI, one made for "They Don't Really Car About Us", where they simulated ten of his dancers to appear as 1000 behind him on a screen, which was actually really cool, another where they threw him into the film "Gilda", with Rita Hayworth, for "Smooth Criminal", and the last was a beautiful piece of CGI for "Earth Song". And as wonderfully lit and well created as it was, I felt they could have left Earth Song out of the film, it seemed to be the most lagging. Lastly there was the "Thriller" piece, with the dancers dressed a la dead people climbing out of their graves, like in the original video but th costumes are more advanced and realistic and the piece was created in 3D to make the audience jump when these people popped up against the camera lens.
And. . .yeah. There are lots of songs, the film completely revolves around the music and the dancing, with little bits interspersed. I felt for the dancers who came from all over the world to audition and got to be just about a week from working live with Michael before he passed. I was glad none of Michael's family was included, Janet, his mother, and a couple of his brothers aside, they tend to just make me grind my teeth. There's no news footage shown after his June 24th/25th rehearsal, just a simple "King of Pop" blended image with no date of birth and death.
It was very well done and very interesting to see. I loved it, I think it'll be fantastic in IMAX but there aren't any theaters close to us. So if you guys get bored this weekend or are the least bit curious, I do recommend the film, for the music, if nothing else.