Michael Jackson is it, mostly

Ordinarily, a movie audience should not be distracted by thinking about the process of making the film. But the viewers of “This Is It” have no choice -- this is a movie that must be judged in the context of how it was made.

“This Is It” is enlightening and entertaining, given the circumstances.

A concert film of sorts celebrating the final tour that Michael Jackson never got to perform, it was cobbled together from rehearsal footage that was not intended to be seen. All things considered, it holds together fairly well.

Shot at what appear to be uneven intervals over a three-month period earlier this year, the footage was meant to be just a keepsake for Jackson (and, one assumes, the basis of a making-of documentary). So the quality of the filming is not what we are accustomed to seeing on the big screen -- the digital cameras are not worthy of a feature-film, the focus is iffy and the sound can be indistinct.

Yet what these sub-par cameras catch is an astonishing performer, still in his prime, working hard to perfect what looks as if it would have been an absolutely astounding show. At one point, Jackson says he wants to show the projected audiences something they have never seen before, and he was well on his way to fulfilling this wish -- from Cirque du Soleil-like aerialists (seen altogether too briefly) to a bit of black-and-white video magic, seamlessly inserting himself into the movies “Gilda” and “The Big Sleep.”

Jackson revolutionized dance, and he spends most of his songs showing off his moves. He has an extraordinary ability to move seemingly without friction -- it’s an illusion he created for moonwalking, in which he appears to put his weight on one foot while actually transferring it to the other. Even knowing how he does it, it still looks shockingly unreal every time.

And of course he grabs his crotch a lot. I’ve never understood that.

If the dance is the best part of the movie, the singing is the weakest. That’s another inevitable result of having to use rehearsal footage -- he wasn’t practicing his singing, he was working on the staging, the music and the dance moves. For several songs, including “Billie Jean,“ he sings half-heartedly, trying to preserve his voice.

In other numbers, such as a group of songs he performed as a boy with the Jackson Five, he isn’t doing anything full strength. These rehearsals of works he has been performing since he was 6 were staged entirely for the benefit of the technicians, the back-up singers and the stellar troupe of dancers.

Jackson had his pick of some of the best dancers in the world b
because, face it, he’s Michael Jackson. A montage of some of them at their audition reveals the esteem they have for him; one man tearfully tells Jackson “You’re why I dance.”

The musicians, too, are absolutely top notch, another advantage to being Michael Jackson. Drummer Jonathan Moffett impresses with a driving, steady beat, but the stand-out is guitarist Orianthi Panagaris. Not only does she make her ax wail, but she’s also hot. It’s a good combination.

The show itself only stumbles once, but it’s a terrible stumble. For “The Earth Song,” it mixes simplistic ecological lyrics with embarrassingly childish images, including a little girl with butterflies facing down a bulldozer. “I love the planet. I have respect for trees,” he says, though we don’t know when he says it or whom he says it to.

You can never quite escape the freakishness of Jackson’s face, and viewers who are not inveterate fans might find themselves getting bored for 15 or 20 minutes. But even though it goes on too long, the movie leaves us wanting more.

We don’t want to watch more of the movie. We just wish it could have ended with actual footage of the concerts.