Michael Jackson's This Is It

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

[An] extraordinary documentary, nothing at all like what I was expecting to see. Here is not a sick and drugged man forcing himself through grueling rehearsals, but a spirit embodied by music. Michael Jackson was something else.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Heartbreaking, exhilarating, baffling. In other words, it expresses the performer's persona in its purest form.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

What this strange yet strangely beguiling film does is capture one of pop culture's great entertainers in the feverish grips of pure creativity.

Slate Dana Stevens

One of the best documents of live performance that I've ever seen, a rehearsal diary that's more intimate and immediate than a traditional concert film.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A spectacular record of rehearsals for a show that wasn't to be.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Watching his struggle is illuminating, unnerving and unforgettable.

Time Out New York Joshua Rothkopf

Michael Jackson was obviously shooting for the moon right before his death, as you can tell from these stunning bits of concert spectacle.

Los Angeles Times Ann Powers

Differing greatly from the rough, casual mood of many behind-the-scenes pop docs, this one is instead of a piece with Jackson's body of work: dazzling and strange, blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Watching it, I saw him from some new angles -- painful as well as celebratory -- and I realized that this isn't it: This, as with Elvis' posthumous career, is only the beginning.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The late King of Pop delivers.

Variety Andrew Barker

There’s an incredible amount to enjoy here, and the star’s fans will be in rapture.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

This Is It offers a raw and endearing sketch of a genius at work.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

He could dance brilliantly right up to the end, it’s clear.This Is It may be a court documentary, but as a heavily lawyered portrait of an artist, it’s still pretty compelling.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Michael Jackson's This Is It looks beyond the reconstructed face and spindly body of the late King of Pop and basks in his meteoric light.

USA Today Elysa Gardner

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.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Reveals little about the personal aspects of the deeply troubled man behind the sunglasses -- it naturally deals with none of the darker aspects of Jackson's life -- but it deftly underlines his commitment to showmanship.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

An up-tempo and upbeat concert documentary that celebrates, rather than mourns, the last hurrah of a pop-culture touchstone.

Time Richard Corliss

It proves that, at the end, he was still a thriller. Fans and doubters alike can look at the gentle, driven singer-dancer at the center of this up-close document and say admiringly, This was him.

Chicago Reader Staff (Not credited)

Captures the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, creative genius, and great artist at work as he creates and perfects his final show.

Empire Ian Freer

This Is It delivers neither the full-on Jackson stage experience or a revealing portrait of his complex mindset. Yet it does not dishonour his memory and you can’t deny the power of the music.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The on-screen results are weird and watchable, by turns frustrating and entertaining, and predictably a little morbid.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

At best, it angrily demands to be rechristened This Is It! Too often, however, an incredulous This Is It? seems more apt.

LA Weekly Randall Roberts

The problem is that Ortega offers only the public Michael.

Portland Oregonian Douglas Perry

If you're a big Michael Jackson fan, you'll love This Is It. If you're not, it's like watching two hours of band practice.

Dallas Observer Zach Baron

More bonkers Jackson-at-work moments would’ve helped, but mostly we just see the kid from Gary, Indiana, dispensing hugs and God-bless-you's to an awed cast and crew. Watching various dancers and guitarists grin irrepressibly during their one-on-one run-throughs with the man is one of This Is It’s few pleasures.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Neither a true concert film nor a strict behind-the-scenes documentary, This Is It is, like Jackson himself, a real hybrid.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

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.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Bottom line: the spectacle he was preparing may well have provided Jackson with the appropriate note on which to close his long, controversial career. This, however, I think even die hard fans will concur, isn't it.

San Francisco Chronicle Aidin Vaziri

Those who stuck with the troubled pop icon after his universe shifted from the charts to the tabloids probably will find equal measures of inspiration and heartbreak in the documentary. For everyone else, it's a strange offering.

Washington Post Chris Richards

For a man who so desperately wanted to show us perfection -- or at least project the illusion of it -- Jackson would never, ever want us to see this film.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Neither a concert film nor a documentary but a ghoulish “event” offered just in time for Halloween, This is It is sadly -- and reprehensively, if you ask me -- the movie equivalent to the National Enquirer’s infamous post-mortem shot of Elvis Presley.