In death as in life, a certain amount of controversy continues to dog the actions of Michael Jackson. A movie has been put together from over 100 hours of footage from the singer's rehearsals for his ill-fated run of shows in London, which would have begun earlier this year. Jackson's choreographer, Kenny Ortega, put the movie together, so it was clearly in good hands...or at least that's what most people thought. A section of the King of Pop's fans are less than happy about the release of the film, and have been very vocal in their protestations.
Talin Shajanian from Los Angeles claimed in an interview with the BBC that Jackson was clearly ill before the rehearsals for the shows began, and said he was "under a lot of pressure." A website named This Is Not It has been set up, and is urging fans to boycott the film, which the site owners claim does not give a real picture of Jackson's final days. Somewhat depressingly, they believe Ortega was forced to feed Jackson because he was too weak to do it himself, and claim the singer was pressured into attending rehearsals when he wasn't feeling well. How the website gained this information remains unknown.
Naturally, this didn't deter celebrities from turning up to the 19 worldwide premiers that occurred last night (Oct. 27), and the event in Los Angeles was particularly star-studded. Jackson's famous siblings turned up in LA, and so did Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and former Motown president Berry Gordy. Jermaine Jackson even tried to put a stop to some of the rumors surrounding his brother's health by saying he was "very, very healthy" at the time of the footage shot for the film.
The critical reception has been decidedly mixed, with opinions ranging from the Telegraph in England, who claim it won't have much appeal outside Jackson's die-hard followers, to the LA Weekly, who think people will "gasp with wonder" at the events on screen. Meanwhile, Ortega has moved to quash some of the speculation surrounding his feature. "Was he slight? Yes. Was he frail? At times," he said. "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."
This Is It goes on general release today (Oct. 28) for a period of two weeks.
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