Michael Jackson: The Journey

With all the information readily available on the internet, in books, and interviews, I was hoping there would finally be a conscientious accounting of Michael Jackson's life and legacy. The first part of the documentary focuses on Michael's early life and the release of “Off the Wall”, “Thriller” and “Bad”. The editing is so poorly done, there are so many pictures and videos available of Michael during that time, and instead they showed over and over clips of Thrill the World events with fans. Evidently, researcher Tay Bailey cut corners or maybe had to deal with intellectual property laws. I was at first encouraged to see Joe Vogel being interviewed. I believe his book "Man in the Music : the creative life and work of Michael Jackson" Is one of the most concise and respectful works anyone has written about Michael since his passing, mainly because it focuses on Michael's music. But even some of Joe Vogel's comments were incorrect, and were not caught by the editors. Dan Wootton is obviously with the UK tabloids. His accounts about Michael were focused on his appearance more than his music. So much information was incorrectly stated or completely left out. Again, the accounting of the accusations in 93 and the trial in 05 spewed the same media rhetoric we have heard for years. They showed a video of Michael during the 05 trial claiming his innocence and attributed it to the 93 accusations. Some of Michael’s greatest achievements, Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible were skimmed over and discounted. Although his reporting was more compassionate, Kevin Hughes claimed that “Rock My World” was the most expensive music video ever made, which is false. Michael and Janet’s short film “Scream” bears that honor. More attention was given to the posthumas "Xscape" album and the "contemporizing" done by Timbaland and Rodney Jerkins. There were a very few clips repeated over and over from "This is It," and the announcement at the 02 arena. There was much attention given to Michael's death, memorial and trial of Conrad Murray and the subsequent AEG trial. Nothing new here. If you are interested in learning about Michael Jackson, I advise you to do your own research. The truth is out there if you take the time to learn for yourself. This is far from a complete accounting of the "Journey" of Michael Jackson. I didn't learn anything new that hasn't been shown in mainstream media and tabloids. It appears to me as just another shoddy attempt to make a buck off of Michael Jackson. Please save yours. I’m glad I just rented it and didn’t buy.

When I first read that there was a new Michael documentary coming out, I was a little apprehensive about it, but then saw that Joseph Vogel was in the documentary also. The documentary has a great overview of Michael's life, and even talks about his memorial service, the Conrad Murray case, and the case against AEG. This documentary was a lot better then most of the other ones that are out there, and I am happy to see and hear different thing about the eras.