The film-makers have done their best to capture Michael Jackson’s old magic but this memorial gives us little chance to really get close to the singer, writes Andrew Pulver

Liz Taylor loves it, the critics don’t mind it – looks like the boycotting fans are the only ones not convinced by Michael Jackson’s This Is It. Have you seen it yet? Was it … bad?

A group of fans decried it as an airbrushed facade which fails to tell the true story of Michael Jackson in his final days. But the critics, for the most part, have been quietly impressed by this strange confection, a hotchpotch of concert footage spliced together from rehearsals for the late singer’s abandoned dates in London.

As a glimpse of Jackson honing his moves for what look likely to have been spectacularly extravagant, hugely polished gigs, This Is It nears perfection, they say. But there are those who wonder if the movie truly hangs together as a piece of film-making, despite the glowing platitudes of the singer’s friend, Liz Taylor, on her Twitter page.

For those who have been living off-planet for the past few months, This Is It is directed by Kenny Ortega, the High School Musical guy who was overseeing Jackson’s rehearsals for 50 dates at the O2 arena in London this past summer. As well as footage from the Forum and the Staples Center in LA of Jackson creating, developing and ultimately staging his first live performances in more than a decade, it includes interviews with awestruck dancers and others who were working with him on the project.

“So, to the burning question: is there any intimation of Jackson’s impending demise?” asks our own Andrew Pulver. “I can’t honestly say there is. In the footage we are permitted to see, Jackson appears in pretty good shape for a 50-year-old – even if his general spindliness makes him occasionally look a bit like Skeletor in a lamé tuxedo.

“As for the film itself, I can simply report that it isn’t too bad at all. It’s pretty much unadorned rehearsal footage, artfully stitched together to create complete song sequences; and since the O2 gigs were intended to present his crowdpleasing hits, they’re all here in their toe-tapping glory.”

“We now know that the London shows would have been hugely ambitious and spectacular,” writes the Telegraph’s David Gritten. “A new film of Thriller in 3-D had been shot, along with a not quite convincing sequence in which Jackson (dressed as a gangster) is spliced into classic Hollywood movies, including Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth.

“This Is it sags in the middle: one tires of his sycophantic troupe (nobody argues with ‘MJ’) and much of the material becomes repetitive. Still, Ortega has applied himself studiously to his task, and the film is some recompense for those deprived by his death of seeing Jackson live.”

“By the second half, the lag begins to set in,” writes The Times’ Kevin Maher. “In these scenes, unprotected by fast cutaways or the dizzying whirl of a dance routine, Jackson is often exposed. Painfully thin and seemingly fragile, like a skeletal marionette, he speaks in strange rambling sentences – about love (“L, o, v, e” he repeatedly spells) and environmentalism – which could be the sacred voice of his inner child or the results of heavy-duty doses of propofol. Either way, it’s a strange and ultimately underwhelming way to say goodbye to a troubled, talented performer.”

“The frustration, beyond the greater one – that a tragedy prevented this concert from happening – is not knowing what you’re looking at,” writes Billboard’s Kirk Honeycutt. “Where are Jackson and his conspirators at any given moment in the creative process? The film tries to be a concert film without having the actual footage. So when everything comes to a halt, audiences get thrown.

“No one should expect a concert film. Jackson clearly is conserving his energy, holding back on dance moves and vocal intensity. He is searching for his concert, the way a sculpture chisels away at marble to discover a statute. This Is It is not a ‘sacred document,’ as Ortega has asserted. But it is a fascinating one.”

For me, the major problem with This Is It as a movie is that it is not really a movie at all. Had the footage featured a performer who was not quite possibly the most remarkable pop artist of the 20th century, and had that artist not died fewer than two days after some of these scenes were filmed, in tragic circumstances, we would never have seen any of it on the big screen. In fact, these recordings were destined for Jackson’s own personal collection, which only makes the scenes in which wide-eyed dancers and choreographers talk about how excited they are to be working with their hero all the more creepy. This Is It really should have been released on DVD, and surely would have been if it were not for Jackson’s huge notoriety, despite Ortega’s valiant and admittedly slick attempt to meld the available footage into something cohesive.

Yet in those moments when Jackson performs his greatest songs there is no way that any amount of cynicism about the singer as a human being can stop hearts from pumping just that little bit faster at the sheer brilliance of the music. And in the absence of any possibility of seeing him perform live again, it must be admitted that there’s something fitting about these performances getting their showcase on larger screens, where fans can watch them in the company of other acolytes.

Have you had the chance to catch This Is It yet? The first screenings for members of the public took place at 4am this morning, so perhaps you’ve just rolled out of bed and are peering bleary-eyed at the first reviews. Do let us know what you thought by posting a comment below.

In spite of the lingering sense of necrophilia, Michael Jackson’s jerry-built swansong has enough juicy titbits to provide succour to die-hard fans

For everyone who’s thirsted for more Michael Jackson since his death little more than four months ago, the wait is finally over. For the rest of us, it’s time to look on in awe as Jackson’s memory – and the legendary fervency of his fans – is ruthlessly exploited till the pips squeak.

As is all too well known, Jackson was carried off shortly before embarking on a 50-date residency at London’s O2 Arena to try and pay off his rumoured $500m debts; footage shot during rehearsal for this series of shows forms

the vast majority of this much-heralded and hyped film, and goes some of the way to plugging both fans’ disappointment and his estate’s balance sheet.

So, to the burning question: is there any intimation of Jackson’s impending demise? I can’t honestly say there is. In the footage we are permitted to see, Jackson appears in pretty good shape for a 50-year-old – even if his general spindliness makes him occasionally look a bit like Skeletor in a lamé tuxedo. He performs at walking pace for much of the time, but makes it clear he is holding himself in.

As for the film itself, I can simply report that it isn’t too bad at all. It’s pretty much unadorned rehearsal footage, artfully stitched together to create complete song sequences; and since the O2 gigs were intended to present his crowdpleasing hits, they’re all here in their toe-tapping glory. Director Kenny Ortega puts himself in the frame quite a bit (sucking up to Jackson something rotten, it has to be said), and we learn that Jackson appeared to prefer culinary metaphors to describe his music: it must “sizzle”, or “simmer”, or indeed “nourish”.

The big fear, though, was that fulsome homages to the man and his talent would smother This Is It in a coating of treacle; thankfully, Ortega limits it to the occasional sobbing outburst from the dancers or choreographers. We are instead offered genuinely interesting tidbits of Jackson’s stagecraft, in the shape of intense discussion of cues, cherry-pickers and trapdoors – presumably to demonstrate how hands-on he was.

And there’s some fun sequences showing the creation of specially filmed inserts, such as the intro for Smooth Criminal having Jackson being Photoshopped into black and white movie clips from the 1940s, fending off Bogart and Cagney.

Jackson’s penchant for drivel couldn’t be entirely eliminated, as evidenced by the sickly little scene, built around a small girl wandering through an enchanted forest, that heralds Earth Song.

Still, this could have been a lot worse. It’s a bit much to claim it’s any kind of viable substitute for the live show, and since Jackson avoids conversation as much as is humanly possible it’s also a bit much to claim we get to know anything more about how he ticks. But This Is It a testament of a kind, and one that is no disgrace to his memory.

The documentary showing rehearsal footage from Jackson’s planned O2 residency will screen simultaneously around the world tonight, regardless of concerns over its verisimilitude

See pictures of the Michael Jackson exhibition at the O2

Michael Jackson fans have launched a campaign suggesting forthcoming documentary This Is It airbrushes the declining health of the singer in his final days.

A website, This Is Not It, suggests Jackson was so frail on the night before he died that 20 fans who regularly followed him penned a letter to the star urging him to take more care of himself.

The fans blame AEG, the promoter of the singer’s abandoned London residency, Sony Pictures and Jackson’s own entourage for exploiting him for their own financial gain. They are planning to protest with leaflets and flyers at premieres taking place around the world later today and tomorrow.

This Is It, directed by High School Musical’s Kenny Ortega, shows Jackson rehearsing at the Staples Centre in LA in advance of this summer’s planned dates at London’s 02 Arena. Jackson died following a heart attack on 25 June before the tour began.

Talin Shajanian, from Los Angeles, who had been following Jackson since 2003, often waiting with others outside the venues where he was rehearsing, told the BBC the singer was “unusually thin” the last time she saw him.

“A couple of weeks before he passed, we saw him change drastically,” she said. “He shared this with us, the pressure that he felt, the concerns that he had.”

“He specifically said he was only one person and only had a certain amount of energy to give, that so much was expected of him for these shows. We were expecting him to bulk up, to put on weight for the concerts like he had in the past, and that wasn’t happening.”

Fans on the This Is Not It website have expressed their scepticism about the project: “The true state of Jackson’s failing health was hidden from you by those who are making a profit from the screening of the This is It movie.

“In the weeks leading up to Jackson’s death, while this footage was being shot, people around him knew that he looked like he might have died. Those who stood to make a profit chose to ignore it. Friends and fans who had no financial interest, chose to address it and attempted to help him.

“AEG, the promoters for This Is It, ignored the signs, ignored the pleas, and in fact, actively covered up the truth. What you will see on that screen is part of that cover up.”

Ortega recently said of Jackson: “Was he slight? Yes. Was he frail? At times. But we had a very strong and excited, happy and determined Michael. He wanted to do this more than anything he’s ever wanted to do … That’s the truth. It really is.”

The film has met with advance praise from Jackson’s friend, the film star Elizabeth Taylor, who called This Is It as “most brilliant piece of film-making I have ever seen” following a private screening.

She added, in a lengthy series of Tweets: “It cements forever Michael’s genius in every aspect of creativity. He cradles each note, coaxes the music to depths beyond reality. I wept from pure joy at his God-given gift. I truly believe this film should be nominated in every category conceivable.”

An autopsy earlier this month found that the 50-year-old star was “fairly healthy” before his death, a coroner having ruled in August that Jackson was killed by the drug Propofol and the sedative Lorazepam.

A statement from Sony Pictures, which is releasing the film, said: “This Is It is a celebration of Michael and his music and the film will demonstrate to fans around the world that he was an artist like no other who was passionately creating a one-of-a-kind concert experience.”

“We believe his fans will be grateful for the rare opportunity to see Michael’s creativity in action as he prepared and rehearsed for his London concerts.”

The moving 3D adventure turns into one of Pixar’s strongest performers, the Saw series shows its first dip, and fans line up for small-hours premieres of This Is It

The winner
Pixar’s Up remains super-buoyant at the top of the box office, with yet another slim decline – 26% – and cumulative takings of £19.68m. After 17 days on release, the animation is well ahead of Pixar’s previous release WALL-E at the same stage of its run last summer (£13.56m) and modestly ahead of Ratatouille (£17.29m). However, Ratatouille’s 17-day figure included the whole October half-term holiday from 2007, whereas that has only just begun for Up. The film should have an especially rich period between now and Sunday.

Up has already overtaken the lifetime total of Pixar’s worst-performing UK title, Cars (£16.5m), and should soon shoot past Toy Story (£22.3m), WALL-E (£22.9m) and Ratatouille (£24.8m). But it still has a long way to go to challenge Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ position as 2009′s biggest animation: that film, from rival studio Twentieth Century Fox, has been pushed back into cinemas for half-term and has now grossed £34.87m.

The rival animation
Offering an alternative to the computer-generated 3D sheen of Up is Wes Anderson’s determinedly lo-fi stop-motion animation Fantastic Mr Fox. Debut takings of £1.52m will be seen as not exactly stellar for a family film based on a recognised property (Roald Dahl’s 1970 story) – but taking all the factors into account, it’s an OK start. In the first place, Anderson has never been mega-box office, and has been on a declining revenue curve since his third movie, 2001′s The Royal Tenenbaums: that film, Life Aquatic and Darjeeling Limited opened with £700,000, £455,000 and £435,000, respectively. Secondly, takings for animations outside Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks and Fox’s Ice Age stables are hit and miss. Coraline debuted with £2.43m in May; Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs with £1.58m last month; and Tale of Despereaux with £561,000 last December. The first two titles on that list, unlike Fantastic Mr Fox, benefited from the higher ticket prices of 3D. Take your pick as to which is an appropriate comparison.

A hit franchise stumbles
“If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw” is the message Lionsgate has been successfully pumping out for five years. And in the UK, since peaking with a £2.52m opening for Saw III in 2006, debut grosses for the ingenious torture franchise have been impressively consistent: Saw IV began its life with £2.48m, and Saw V with £2.44m. Now, at last, Saw takes a stumble: the latest installment has opened with £1.74m. The result echoes a similar underperformance in the US, which had been attributed mostly to competition from low-budget horror phenomenon Paranormal Activity. That film doesn’t open until 27 November in the UK, so Saw VI’s dip here presumably reflects market saturation after pictures on five consecutive Octobers. Saw VII is set to be in 3D; if only Lionsgate had managed to present Saw VI in the popular format, it might have been a whole different story.

Arthouse goes AWOL
Last October, foreign-language releases Gomorrah and I’ve Loved You So Long both played to packed arthouses, while crossover title The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas appealed widely to upscale audiences. Fast forward to October 2009, and there’s a dearth of arthouse hits, unless you count The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus or smart comedy Zombieland, which we don’t. Top arthouse release is eco-documentary The Cove, which, despite lots of press and favorable reviews, opened at the weekened with a blah £18,000 from 27 screens, for a £665 average. The result goes to show how hard it is these days to get audiences to watch environment-themed documentaries in the cinema, even one that promises thrills and spills. The release this Friday of An Education can’t come soon enough for the nation’s independent cinemas.

The future
Michael Jackson’s This Is It is being unveiled to the world at the same time on Tuesday, which is fine if you live in LA (6pm) or New York (9pm), but not so great if you are in London (1am Wednesday morning), Paris (2am) and destinations east. Still, it’s all part of the hoopla Sony is building on the concert-rehearsal movie, and Michael Jackson fans should propel it to a stellar debut, especially since Wednesday and Thursday takings will be added in, giving a five-day opening “weekend” result. Advance ticket sales are said to be exceptionally high. After that, it’s more about how word of mouth can spread interest beyond the core fanbase.

UK top 10
1. Up, 549 sites, £3,807,003. Total: £19,683,204
2. Saw VI, 375 sites, £1,736,287 (New)
3. Fantastic Mr Fox, 481 sites, £1,517,312 (New)
4. Couples Retreat, 379 sites, £932,171. Total: £3,588,820
5. Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, 385 sites, £798,641 (New)
6. The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, 268 sites, £616,719. Total: £2,068,715
7. The Invention of Lying, 307 sites, £362,760. Total: £5,538,932
8. Zombieland, 279 sites, £323,815. Total: £3,001,207
9. Fame, 373 sites, £218,110. Total: £8,311,403
10. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 369 sites, £142,011. Total: £5,881,661

How the other openers did
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, 100 screens, £36,360
The Cove, 27 screens, £17,956
Johnny Mad Dog, 2 screens, £6,439 + £3,279 previews
Made in Jamaica, 2 screens, £2,345
Coffin Rock, 2 screens, £184
Colin, 3 screens, no figures available

The moving 3D adventure turns into one of Pixar’s strongest performers, the Saw series shows its first dip, and fans line up for small-hours premieres of This Is It

The winner
Pixar’s Up remains super-buoyant at the top of the box office, with yet another slim decline – 26% – and cumulative takings of £19.68m. After 17 days on release, the animation is well ahead of Pixar’s previous release WALL-E at the same stage of its run last summer (£13.56m) and modestly ahead of Ratatouille (£17.29m). However, Ratatouille’s 17-day figure included the whole October half-term holiday from 2007, whereas that has only just begun for Up. The film should have an especially rich period between now and Sunday.

Up has already overtaken the lifetime total of Pixar’s worst-performing UK title, Cars (£16.5m), and should soon shoot past Toy Story (£22.3m), WALL-E (£22.9m) and Ratatouille (£24.8m). But it still has a long way to go to challenge Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ position as 2009′s biggest animation: that film, from rival studio Twentieth Century Fox, has been pushed back into cinemas for half-term and has now grossed £34.87m.

The rival animation
Offering an alternative to the computer-generated 3D sheen of Up is Wes Anderson’s determinedly lo-fi stop-motion animation Fantastic Mr Fox. Debut takings of £1.52m will be seen as not exactly stellar for a family film based on a recognised property (Roald Dahl’s 1970 story) – but taking all the factors into account, it’s an OK start. In the first place, Anderson has never been mega-box office, and has been on a declining revenue curve since his third movie, 2001′s The Royal Tenenbaums: that film, Life Aquatic and Darjeeling Limited opened with £700,000, £455,000 and £435,000, respectively. Secondly, takings for animations outside Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks and Fox’s Ice Age stables are hit and miss. Coraline debuted with £2.43m in May; Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs with £1.58m last month; and Tale of Despereaux with £561,000 last December. The first two titles on that list, unlike Fantastic Mr Fox, benefited from the higher ticket prices of 3D. Take your pick as to which is an appropriate comparison.

A hit franchise stumbles
“If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw” is the message Lionsgate has been successfully pumping out for five years. And in the UK, since peaking with a £2.52m opening for Saw III in 2006, debut grosses for the ingenious torture franchise have been impressively consistent: Saw IV began its life with £2.48m, and Saw V with £2.44m. Now, at last, Saw takes a stumble: the latest installment has opened with £1.74m. The result echoes a similar underperformance in the US, which had been attributed mostly to competition from low-budget horror phenomenon Paranormal Activity. That film doesn’t open until 27 November in the UK, so Saw VI’s dip here presumably reflects market saturation after pictures on five consecutive Octobers. Saw VII is set to be in 3D; if only Lionsgate had managed to present Saw VI in the popular format, it might have been a whole different story.

Arthouse goes AWOL
Last October, foreign-language releases Gomorrah and I’ve Loved You So Long both played to packed arthouses, while crossover title The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas appealed widely to upscale audiences. Fast forward to October 2009, and there’s a dearth of arthouse hits, unless you count The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus or smart comedy Zombieland, which we don’t. Top arthouse release is eco-documentary The Cove, which, despite lots of press and favorable reviews, opened at the weekened with a blah £18,000 from 27 screens, for a £665 average. The result goes to show how hard it is these days to get audiences to watch environment-themed documentaries in the cinema, even one that promises thrills and spills. The release this Friday of An Education can’t come soon enough for the nation’s independent cinemas.

The future
Michael Jackson’s This Is It is being unveiled to the world at the same time on Tuesday, which is fine if you live in LA (6pm) or New York (9pm), but not so great if you are in London (1am Wednesday morning), Paris (2am) and destinations east. Still, it’s all part of the hoopla Sony is building on the concert-rehearsal movie, and Michael Jackson fans should propel it to a stellar debut, especially since Wednesday and Thursday takings will be added in, giving a five-day opening “weekend” result. Advance ticket sales are said to be exceptionally high. After that, it’s more about how word of mouth can spread interest beyond the core fanbase.

UK top 10
1. Up, 549 sites, £3,807,003. Total: £19,683,204
2. Saw VI, 375 sites, £1,736,287 (New)
3. Fantastic Mr Fox, 481 sites, £1,517,312 (New)
4. Couples Retreat, 379 sites, £932,171. Total: £3,588,820
5. Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, 385 sites, £798,641 (New)
6. The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, 268 sites, £616,719. Total: £2,068,715
7. The Invention of Lying, 307 sites, £362,760. Total: £5,538,932
8. Zombieland, 279 sites, £323,815. Total: £3,001,207
9. Fame, 373 sites, £218,110. Total: £8,311,403
10. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 369 sites, £142,011. Total: £5,881,661

How the other openers did
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, 100 screens, £36,360
The Cove, 27 screens, £17,956
Johnny Mad Dog, 2 screens, £6,439 + £3,279 previews
Made in Jamaica, 2 screens, £2,345
Coffin Rock, 2 screens, £184
Colin, 3 screens, no figures available

The actor thanked her fans for their support on Twitter, saying that her recent heart surgery went ‘perfectly’

Elizabeth Taylor last night assured fans that her heart operation had been a success. The two-time Oscar winner had been admitted to an undisclosed hospital earlier this week.

“My heart procedure went off perfectly,” Taylor said via Twitter. “It’s like having a brand new ticker. Thank you for all your prayers and good wishes. I know they all helped.”

Taylor, 77, has been battled ill health in recent years and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2004. Last Tuesday, she tweeted that she was to enter hospital for what she described as “new procedure that involves repairing my leaky valves using a clip device, without open-heart surgery.”

The actor also poured scorn on press claims that she was also suffering from diabetes and earlier admitted that she was still grieving the death of Michael Jackson. “I always will,” she added.