Bad 25

NOTE: This is a review of the sixty-four minute snippet of Spike Lee's Bad 25 that aired on ABC on November 22, 2012. The original film is about two hours and eleven minutes and is scheduled to be released on DVD in February 2013. When available, I will publish a new review of the full length film, which will be mixed points from this review along with newly established ones.

Every artist, big or small, comes billed with their own projected style or personal feature. Gene Simmons had his tongue, Madonna had her dresses, but Michael Jackson had his moves and "his groove," music executive Andre Harrell tells us in Spike Lee's much-anticipated Bad 25. Just watching an old video of Michael Jackson performing live and dancing on stage inspires all sorts of reactions among the old and the young. His talents are unforgettable, his music, touching in the way words can not describe, and eternal, much like his spirit.

We begin by welcoming expected statistics to the table; Michael Jackson's album Thriller is the best selling album in music history, how do you follow it up? With another fantastic record that boasts five singles, all of which charting number one. That album, of course, is the iconic Bad, released in 1987, with a cover boasting Michael staring at you in a black leather jump-suit with several silver buckles, and the five singles being "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "Man in the Mirror," "The Way You Make Me Feel," and "Dirty Diana." After those back-to-back successes, you can bet that pretty much every tune off the album became its own single.

Followed up are a variety of interviews from modern stars such as Mariah Carey, Chris Brown, and Kanye West, and a number of artists and composers that had firsthand experience with Michael such as his main producer, Quincy Jones and Tatiana Thumbtzen, who co-starred with him in the music video for "The Way You Make Me Feel," where she remarks fondly about how Michael was so shy and vulnerable, leading the director of the short film to change the ending from a kiss to a simple hug. I say short film purely for the spirit of Michael Jackson; he never liked to call the video counterparts for his songs "music videos," but "short films," and they definitely played like one. The only modern artist I can think of that tries to tag on a story with her videos is Lady Gaga, but even she can't embody the true sense of power and bombastic greatness of the king of pop.

Quite possibly the most interesting segment in the film is the footage we get behind the scenes of the Bad short film shoot, with acclaimed director Martin Scorsese manning the camera. In front of it are not only Michael Jackson with a band of young, highly-skilled choreographers, but Wesley Snipes in a debut role as the one peer pressuring Michael before he exclaims loudly and proudly that he is "bad." But not criminally bad; "bad" as in cool, he says.

Another short film shoot we explore is the production of the kinetic, infectious anthem "Smooth Criminal," which just so happens to be one of my favorite Michael Jackson songs. We see how deeply and closely the short mimics the film noir style of pictures like The Third Man, with its heavy use of shadow and color. In its entirety, the short is expertly crafted and the music is beautifully sung, and like mentioned in the film, is completely worth it to see the "Smooth Criminal" lean, where Michael and his group of dancers lean forward to the point of almost appearing horizontal.

Bad 25 will suffer by comparison to Michael Jackson film greats like Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and Michael Jackson's This Is It. It's difficult to top those cherished pictures mainly because it shows Michael as a living, breathing human, and what we're left with is to remember him through archived concert footage and the hundreds of interviews he gave in his heyday. I'm giving this cut of the documentary three stars only as a placeholder because I can sense that it is heavily cut and a large part of the exploration in the five singles feels rather slim. To judge this entire project solely on the viewing of the hour-long special we were fortunate to get is a little disheartening and unfair. I haven't seen the half of it - literally.

Starring: Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Quincy Jones, Martin Scorsese, Cee Lo Green, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Sheryl Crow, and Tatiana Thumbtzen. Directed by: Spike Lee.

"Bad 25" is an insightful outlook at the genius of Michael Jackson. Years have passed since his death but people won't stop worshipping him since he established himself as a real cult figure. This documentary emphasizes the immense creativity of Jackson and his timeless music. It's easy to understand how he has always had free access to the heart of billions of people including all his colleagues and employees. The truth of his greatness is palpable throughout the documentary, which is able to immerse the audience in the massive hysteria of the 80s that surrounded Michael Jackson. "Bad 25" was made by people who truly cared about Michael and his art and it shows.

The documentary also focuses on the work ethic of the superstar and how he set the unachievable standards of the music industry.

If you are looking for a great piece of the history of Michael Jackson 'Bad 25' is the answer.

Spike Lee could be a filmmaker with varied performance when it comes to films but here he truly displayed some professionalism covering the recording era of Michael Jackson's "Bad" album.

Not only, he collects interviews from numerous individuals of the music industry but he carefully tries to avoid the myth and gossip traps that surround the name of Michael Jackson. This is a musical documentary at first and not a closer look as to who or what Michael Jackson was.

An argument could be made that Lee decided to focus all his energy to the musical genius that Jackson was and how hard he worked to finish an album such as "Bad" including his any skills. The man was composing, producing, writing the songs, choreographing his videos, singing and dancing live, vocal arranging and beatboxing! It is a shame that the album itself had to endure endless criticism for not reaching the levels of "Thriller" and at that period it was considered a disappointment despite selling more than 30 million copies worldwide and being accompanied by the most successful tour of all time.

After 25 years though, "Bad" is considered one of the best albums out there, a record unparalleled in terms of hits and quality balance. "Bad" is a record richer than "Thriller" with less filler and more meat. Lee's interviews, raw footage and behind the scenes tactics prove just that. Taking a massive 5 year period to be recorded, with hundreds of (finished) demos, lots of artistic input and various musical collaborations, "Bad" now gets the treatment and (much awaited) spotlight it deserves.

Bad 25 celebrates the rich sound that Jackson's third solo record contained along with diverse musical engineering and craftmanship. The album has so many hits on so many levels - the short film of Smooth Criminal, the anti gravity lean, the West Side Story dance number of "Bad", the rock gritty sound of "Dirty Diana" with Steve Stevens' input, the psychedelic vibe in "Leave me alone" and the powerful anthem of "Man in the mirror" are just cases that display, suggest and reveal a creative and hard working genius at the peak of his game.

It is really sad that people still tend to emphasize any negative or controversial aspects that Jackson may had. But the musical one is not one of them. For he remains at the pantheon of the most brilliant musicians and performers ever to walk the earth and perhaps, the greatest. And we cannot take that away from him. Ever

"This Is It" spoils us. It will no doubt go down as the film that got the closest to MJ's process and work habits.

That film makes "Bad 25" look especially like second-hand news, as an array of musicians, technicians, sound engineers and others weigh in on MJ's follow-up to the still-reigning highest-selling album of all time in "Thriller".

One by one, the songs on Bad are broken down into the stories of how they came to be produced, while it is noted throughout that at that point in his adulthood, MJ was becoming a savvy businessman.

I especially like the stuff from those who knew MJ at the time of the recording, while hangers-on Justin Bieber, Kanye, and Chris Brown all received boos at the Toronto screening during TIFF.

In "This Is It" we get right up close to the King of Pop, so having a doc with a bunch of people telling us about him just doesn't resonate as fully, and to my surprise, there is a lot of talking in this movie compared with the amount of music in it.

This is not a bad movie. It made me nostalgic for my youth and to want to hear these songs in full. And of course, MJ's passing has only increased the shivers I get when I hear that choir go, "man in the mirruh!", but as far as music docs go, this is pretty much par for the course.

Don't get me wrong, I love Spike Lee and I love MJ, but this documentary just isn't that good. I saw it at the Filmfestival in Venice this summer, and was really looking forward to it, especially since Spike was there at the viewing. He was cool. The film let me down a little bit, though. Even though especially the footage of the making of 'Bad' and the origins of other songs were great to see and very interesting, some of the interviews with celebrities were not. People like Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey did not have a lot to contribute, and for me the tear-jerking question 'where were you when you heard about Michael's death?' (followed by a montage of celebrities looking down, tearing up etc) could have been left out. It is important to pay a tribute to the King of Pop, of course, but it could have been done in a tighter and 'smoother' way. It reminded me too much of some MTV 'The Rise & Rise of..' format. The style of the film (talking head, weird cross zoom rotate fade, original footage, talking head) was also part the reason why to me it felt it should have ended about twenty minutes before it did.