ironhorse_iv
Singer Michael Jackson's death in 2009 was indeed tragic, however, it still didn't magically absolve all the controversy & weirdness surrounding him. Nor does it, excuse him, for how awful, nonsensical this movie is. Rather than featuring one continuous narrative, the film is a collection of distorted fast cutting random theme short vignettes about Michael Jackson; with several of them being long-form music videos from Jackson's Bad album. Because of this choice in direction, I have to question, the people who made this movie's ability as filmmakers. This movie is so confusing and nearly unwatchable. It's an acid trip movie that's easier to hear, than see. I really don't get, what happening! One minute, the film has Michael Jackson trying to escape from grossest stop motion paparazzi in a rabbit mascot costume, the next minute, it has him, turning into a robot spaceship battling a drug-dealer named Frankie Lideo AKA Mr. Big, played by Joe Pesci. For a movie that has anti-drug message, it really does felt like this film was made by people on drugs. Also, this movie doesn't really doesn't make Jackson, look good. He looks like a lunatic for the most part, who has no clue, what's he talking about. Lots of contradictions. Some good examples is how he sings about telling people to leave him alone; only for later, to sing about having people be together and work out in harmony. Even, his famous songs don't add up. I like how he's singing about world peace in a live performance of "Man in the Mirror" at Wembley Stadium; while featuring a montage of clips of pacifist leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Jesus Christ, and other historical figures; only to be singing later, about finding a bloodstained carpet and an unconscious body with 'Smooth Criminal', while shooting off, a tommy gun at the villains. Don't get me wrong, I like both songs, and music videos, but it give off, mixed messages for the audience, especially the children that look up to him. In my opinion, why couldn't this film, just establish that we're just watching a bunch of new music videos. It would have been stronger and more memorable. Why did we need, all those confusing mucho jumbo retrospective sequences!? It just shows the same old crap that would show up in later segments, like the Claymation, the transformers, and Gilliam's style moving cutouts from antique photographs. Plus, the songs while covering the early years from the Jackson 5 was nice to hear, again; felt wasn't needed. After all, this movie was market to promote Jackson's newest album at the time, 'Bad'. So, why didn't they use more songs from the album like "Liberian Girl' or 'Another Part of Me', than old Jackson 5 hits!? Those songs rarely got feature in any music video. Another thing, that was bizarre about 'Moonwalker', was the kidz bop version of 'Bad' with Brandon Quintin Adams. I get that, it's a parody, but the comedy seem oddly place, seeing how it came out after the retrospective sequences. Are we the audience, supposedly to find Michael Jackson's career, as a joke!? Were, we supposed to laugh on how bad, the music video 'bad' was!? I don't get it. I thought, they wanted us to buy that album! It's seem so out of the blue. Honestly, if I can be truthful. The only good thing to come out of this movie, was, the 'Smooth Criminal' sequence that was influence by the movie, 1953's 'The Band Wagon'. A great homage to the works of Fred Astaire, even if it was kinda ruin by the weird interlude silence moaning interpretive dance in the middle. It looks like everybody at Club 30's, was having a giant stroke. Nevertheless, at least, it was better than the 'Alien Ant Farm' version. I don't see Dryden Mitchell trying to do anti-gravity lean, anywhere in that music video. Anyways, every other sequence in 'Moonwalker' seem pretty much below standards, because how much, annoying the vacuum of praise for Michael Jackson, is. We get it, he's incredibly talent, but he's not Jesus. He was heavily flawed human being with a man child complex. Please stop acting like he is the Messiah; and stop rubbing it, in our faces that he's better than us, when he clearly, wasn't. For a man, that mocks the media for unnecessarily sensationalized his life; he does help feed that BS that the world circle around him. Because of this, I really couldn't stand watching this strange ego trip of a movie. Overall: Michael Jackson is a smooth criminal, but his movie was nowhere near that. It was rough.
rcolgan
If I were to tell you there was a film where Michael Jackson becomes a little child, got chased by clay animated monsters, turned into a bunny, ran with a little girl into a cave to find a drug den, got chased by mobsters, turned into a car, gunned down several SWAT agents, became a robot and then flew to his home planet in a spaceship then would you believe me? Well you should, because all this and more happens in Moonwalker. One of the biggest WTF films you could ever see.It has no plot. It has no logic. Heck, I don't even think it even had a script. I'm guessing Jackson just wrote a list of things he wanted to do and the filmmakers obliged since he's Michael Jackson. It's overly absurd nature seems to be at times one of the most detailed recreations of and LSD trip since Yellow Submarine was put to screen in the 60's. But as long as you can embrace this insane nature it can be pretty fun. Mostly because everything in the film lacks any consistency with nothing other than Jacksons presence linking all the scenes together. Largely this is due to being split into several segment's and being shot by several people so nothing about the style or the plot keeps consistent. It starts with live concerts, then a mixture of clay and 2d animation sequences before shifting into what's best described as a dark noir style action. It's with this lack of consistency that becomes amusing with many of the scenes being either pointless or simply bizarre. Most of it just happens without any explanation whatsoever with no real arching story to link the different segments. I'm guessing that this didn't matter too much for Jackson and that he just viewed the story of the film as a way of gratifying his wacky ideas and acting as filler between the times when he's singing. Towards the end of the film Jackson literally forgets about finishing the story and leaves the other characters behind so he can just have a music concert. But I can't really complain about this seeing as it is Michaels Jacksons songs, many of which coming from his prime in the 80's.Also the music videos that accompany the songs are usually pretty cool. However sometimes they do get annoying and can show just how big an ego he had with Man in the Mirror being played over a mixture of fans cheering him like a god with footage of historic peace figures like Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Ghandi. Talk about holding yourself in high regard… On top of that shortly after comes the Leave Me Alone song where he then complains about the attention that he's been getting. If you don't want attention then you shouldn't big up your persona so much!Other sequences are simply awesome and amongst Jacksons best music videos. Take for example Smooth Criminal. Whilst it came out of nowhere and had no reason for being, the dance sequence is by far the films greatest moment. It's incredibly shot with an awesome fast paced style to keep in tune with the tone of the music. The dance choreography is amongst the best of Jackson's career with the likes of synchronised side steps and the famous lean keeping the sequence innovative throughout. And on top of all this, it just looks cool throughout with awesome gangster suits and finishing with Jackson getting out a massive gun and shooting out the entire room. All done to the already fantastic song, the Smooth Criminal sequence is a brilliant 10 minute music video and probably my favourite Michael Jackson music video. If you do not want to watch the rest of this film, I would strongly advise at least watching this scene on YouTube. Then there are the live concert songs, which whilst obviously out of place (just like the rest of the film) do give a good concert feel throughout actually being filmed with fully packed audiences. After all it is Jackson's music and he is the king of pop. He's just got a great stage presence that even on film still allows him to dominate and keep you glued to the screen. It may lack plot but it would be impossible to deny that this film does have one heck of a soundtrack. So when it comes to a film like this it really depends on what you're expecting. If you come in to this film expecting plot or characters, then you're going to be disappointed. But if you just watch it expecting some cool music sequences mixed with a whole lot of WTF moments you're going to be in for a treat. If nothing else the film does paint an interesting portrait in the mind of one of the greatest, albeit also strangest, singers of the 20th century and is worth a watch due to the sheer absurdity if nothing else.
Neil Welch
I have such mixed feelings here. As a not-particularly Michael Jackson fan, but as someone who nonetheless quick likes a moderate amount of the music and some of the dancing here, a fair amount of Moonwalker holds my attention. In particular I like nearly everything about the Smooth Criminal sequence.And that, perhaps, is the problem. That sequence - notwithstanding its downright demented plot - does have a narrative structure, and comprises a good third of a feature film on its own. I find myself wishing that they had found a way to integrate the other musical sequences into the same narrative rather than have them as standalones, tied together with (effectively) little bits of string. Each one succeeds well enough, I suppose (although I never did care for the little kids version of Bad), but I got the whiff of something rather better in my nostrils, and it was something of a disappointment when it turned out to be just a collection of videos.
