Michael Jackson's Ghosts

"Ghosts" plays more as a special effects reel than as a movie or a music video. The "song" portion of the video is incredibly slight. In his heyday, Michael Jackson and his accomplices were able to produce videos that integrated fun (if not brilliant) visuals with his once unique brand of pop music. Now, his videos -- of which "Ghosts" is easily the worst -- have become half-hour-long egofests.

Stan Winston is a brilliant makeup artist, but as a director he is just awful. This video plays like a series of reaction shots: Michael Jackson does something ooky; the parents, kids, and Mayor react with horrified visages and huddle together; Michael does something "funny"; the parents and kids look amused (and for some reason comforted), while the Mayor continues to look perturbed. This series of events happens over and over and over again. At least half the video consists of those annoying reaction shots; what a waste of videotape!

Even the choreography for this video is poorly filmed, and choreography should be the focal point of any Michael Jackson video. Winston focuses on the makeup rather than on the dancers, giving closeups of their grotesque features instead of their footwork.

The video's message is obviously that odd-looking weirdos like Michael Jackson can still be lovable, but I do not see how the video succeeds in reinforcing this theory. The little kids involved seem to have no problem with Michael's ability to jump down another human's throat and manipulate him like a puppet. I dunno -- if I were ten years old, I think that might bother me a bit.

This video serves as a reminder that the only thing that has changed about Michael Jackson is the way we look at him. The genius is still there and has grown 10,000 times since thriller. If you put this movie up against thriller it makes thriller pale in comparison musically, special effects wise, basically in every way, it's just that most people are too stupid to see it because like little kids, they are too caught up in the way he looks (which is just fine in this movie btw).

The dancing is jaw dropping! The music is excellent! Makes you want to get up and dance! The plot is funny and shows Michael Jackson's sense of humor about the way he knows people think about him.

EXCELLENT MOVIE! Do yourself a favor and stop believing all the crap you hear and missing out on jaw dropping perfection which is everything he puts out!

In my opinion my top 10 favorite pieces of work by him are:

1) The 'Scream' Video (over 7 Million Dollars and you see every dime) 2) The 'Ghosts' Video / Movie 3) The 'Earth Song' Video (if it doesn't move you emotionally you're not human) 4) The 'HIStory' album (easily his best work for someone mentally over the age of 12) 5) The 'Dangerous' album (every song is perfection) 6) The 'You Rock My World' video (Chris Tucker, Malron Brando, Michael Madsen & Michael Jackson how do you not have a great video?) 7) The 'Invincible' album (10 million records sold & counting, great piece of work, tuned to perfect pop precision) 8) The 'Black or White' song / video (They are both excellent!!) 9) The 'Stranger in Moscow' song /video (I mean that's where you see how much of a genius he still is) 10) The 'Blood on The Dance Floor' album (the first five tracks really show how amazing he is as a writer, it awesome) *** Thriller goes without saying, but he really has done some of his best work since then.***

This film is absolutely stunning once AGAIN Michael Jackson stuns us with his excellent dance moves and vocal. I love this film to bits and it is so funny. I mean his dance moves are just SOOOOO GOOD, I would recommend anyone to see this.

Being a Michael Jackson fan since the early 1980's I've always remained interested in anything he does.

I think commercially his best days were behind him in the mid-90's, but this is still an excellent video and it far exceeds a lot of the crap that artists put out there today.

Most videos are the same thing over and over, the artists with the line dancers in bikinis behind them, YAWN!

Michael Jackson comes along and takes the music video to the next level, he puts a storyline into it and killer special effects.

When you get done, the only person the guy has failed to outdo is himself.

Like him or no, Michael Jackson is still the king of music video.

Yes I do. Who would think that MJ would top the amazing short film that is Thriller. This film right here is a masterpiece from start to finish. From the acting to the dancing. Its another classic by the King.