Spike Lee should stop making MJ documentaries ? Your thoughts ?

[lougrizli]

Let's be honest, his documentaries are not very interesting. Most of us watch them only for the live footage.
I've seen new threads about Dangerous 25 but if he's on the project again, I'd not buy it.
The "The Life Of An Icon" documentary by David Gest was way more better. Clearly, IDGAF about a guy who think Michael said "Keep on with the fork" on DSTYGE, that's not what I wanna see about the creation of his albums.

Spike Lee don't deserve to make a documentary of Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible. Even Michael wasn't satisfied by his work on They Don't Care About Us. The man died so now they do what they want ?
These 3 "periods" shouldn't be ****ed up like the 2 previous one. Especially Dangerous and HIStory. I don't know about Invincible due to Michael's problems. But we've so much to see of Dangerous and HIStory.

You want a Dangerous Documentary where Zayn Malik told how Jam inspired him ? Really ? Again ? We could see studios footage, dancing rehearsal footage, Michael playing at neverland, a lot of stuffs from each era and we're gonna let them making another shitty released ? Plus, don't tell me "Oh they don't have footage blabla.." because it's not true and y'all know it.

By the way, it's only my opinion. Just wanna know yours.

 

[KOPV]

My opinion is why stop anyone from working on positive MJ material.. where the scale of interesting it is, why would we ever stop someone from doing it? Plus Spike is a highly decorated director that does not NEED MJ docs.. this is from the heart!

 

[lougrizli]

My opinion is why stop anyone from working on positive MJ material.. where the scale of interesting it is, why would we ever stop someone from doing it? Plus Spike is a highly decorated director that does not NEED MJ docs.. this is from the heart!

So we've nothing to say because he made it with the heart ? I'm only sayin that they could make way better than these 2. (Bad & OTW) We will probably never have another chance for a documentary of these eras. He messed up everything, IMO.

 

[Ms. BlueGangsta]

Spike does a good job.
The reason he includes newer artist is to show MJ's impact and influence.
He's also one of the few people who can make an MJ doc without throwing shade at MJ in some way.

 

[lougrizli]

Spike does a good job.
The reason he includes newer artist is to show MJ's impact and influence.
He's also one of the few people who can make an MJ doc without throwing shade at MJ in some way.

I'm not saying that's not a good thing to put newer artist. You don't get what I'm tryin to say.

 

[OnirMJ]

Let's be honest, his documentaries are not very interesting. Most of us watch them only for the live footage.

That is not true. I'd say "some of us", definitely not "most of us". I don't think his documentaries are the best they could be but I still think they are interesting.

I've seen new threads about Dangerous 25 but if he's on the project again, I'd not buy it.

Well.. that is your right to do so. No one is forcing you to buy anything.

The "The Life Of An Icon" documentary by David Gest was way more better. Clearly, IDGAF about a guy who think Michael said "Keep on with the fork" on DSTYGE, that's not what I wanna see about the creation of his albums.

David Gest documentary was trashy half-tabloid documentary, especially the second part of it after Michael left Motown and they didn't have rights to use any footage or songs so they turned to tabloid stuff.

That comment from Questlove was really bad and I don't like that kind of humour and I think it should have been cut out but his other commentaries were great. He is very knowledgeable MJ commentator unlike some others. But even with those kind of bloopers you can't say that this documentary was worse than Gest documentary.

Also the documentary wasn't just about the creation of Off The Wall. It was about the Journey from Motown to Off The Wall and about the album in general thus the title. If the documentary was about the making of the album then it would have been called Making of Off The Wall.

Spike Lee don't deserve to make a documentary of Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible.

I'm not completely satisfied with his work either. I don't think that he don't deserve it but maybe it is time for a different director and different approach for the HIStory documentary which should be next.

Even Michael wasn't satisfied by his work on They Don't Care About Us.

FALSE!!!

The man died so now they do what they want ?

Well, Michael appointed them to be the executors of his Estate. So.. yes, that is part of their job. Also they do what they think is the best for Michael and the Estate. (They had few mistakes, I know).

These 3 "periods" shouldn't be ****ed up like the 2 previous one. Especially Dangerous and HIStory.

I wouldn't say they were fu*ked up. Spike just had different approach to it. He did them his style.

I don't know about Invincible due to Michael's problems.

What problems?

You want a Dangerous Documentary where Zayn Malik told how Jam inspired him ? Really ? Again ?

I don't know who that is.

We could see studios footage, dancing rehearsal footage, Michael playing at neverland, a lot of stuffs from each era. Plus, don't tell me "Oh they don't have footage blabla.." because it's not true and y'all know it.

Bad 25 had a lot studio footage for a documentary. Off The Wall didn't but it is truth that for Off The Wall there is no studio footage. You can't make a documentary with too much such footage because it would be "boring" or less interesting for the general public. That's why Off The Wall documentary was cut down from 2 hours to 1,5 hour and the general public loved it much more because it was more dynamic. (and I agree with that). But they should have put additional footage on the blu-ray and DVD release for the fans. Like full Just Good Friends and IJCSLY studio footage.

and we're gonna let them making another shitty released ?

We? We don't let them do anything. It's their job. We can like it and buy it or dislike it and wait for another project. That's it.

 

[Doggone]

So we've nothing to say because he made it with the heart ? I'm only sayin that they could make way better than these 2. (Bad & OTW) We will probably never have another chance for a documentary of these eras. He messed up everything, IMO.

Who says that only 1 documentary for each era is allowed? You said it yourself, you think there are many other better directors. They can try to beat Spike Lee by making another documentary about Bad and OTW.

My opinion is why stop anyone from working on positive MJ material.. where the scale of interesting it is, why would we ever stop someone from doing it? Plus Spike is a highly decorated director that does not NEED MJ docs.. this is from the heart!

Exactly this.

Let's be honest, his documentaries are not very interesting. Most of us watch them only for the live footage.

The "The Life Of An Icon" documentary by David Gest was way more better.

Spike Lee don't deserve to make a documentary of Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible. Even Michael wasn't satisfied by his work on They Don't Care About Us

Well, most of us do think that the documentaries were very interesting and many of us enjoyed it. Especially Bad. It's hard to make a documentary without the protagonist. So they will have to use the materials they have from the past. It was very interesting to see how Siedah worked together and how she came up with MITM as she told in the Bad 25 documentary.

In my honest opinion, there's no other director that than Spike Lee that deserves to make these documentaries. Please, could you name up other directors?

And does someone have evidence about Michael disliking the TDCAU Brazilian video?

 

[lougrizli]

Like I said "It's only my opinion" I know a part of the fan-base likes what Spike Lee did but there's also another part who's not satisfied.
You said that's his style but from someone called a legend, I'm not completely convinced.

Michael didn't like TDCAU Brazilian Version, that's why they made the prison one.

Nobody said that only one documentary for each era is allowed but you know how the Estate is, it's not necessary to explain you how selfish they are. The Bad Documentary was better than OTW but still, not as good as it deserves.

"If the documentary was about the making of the album then it would have been called Making of Off The Wall." So why Bad 25 isn't called "Making of Bad" ?

Most of us think that the documentaries were good ? Nah, SOME of you are satisfied with what you got. Not everybody. But I still respect your opinion.

They do what's best for Michael's legacy ? You sure about that ? They only want to know how much money they made at the end of the year that's why they give us a Bad Tour in horrible quality, an album with 6 tracks known on 8 and 2 documentaries who could have been way, way, WAY better. Especially the last one.

 

[AlwaysThere]

Questlove is featured in a substantial portion of the run time of the Off the Wall documentary and offers absolutely nothing other than his misinterpretation of the lyrics to Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough and how much he enjoys Working Day and Night.

Kobe Bryant gets a couple minutes to speak about Michael's influence on him.

Mark Ronson gets a couple minutes to do the same.

Stevie Wonder gets about thirty seconds to explain where I Can't Help It came from.

Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster get about twenty seconds.

Bruce Swedien gets about twenty seconds.

This is the shortest possible way I can outline why Spike should not do any further documentaries. He is too focused on showing the album's influence in modern times that he neglects exploring how the album was made and praising those involved.

Bad25 balanced modern artists and footage relatively well, but Off the Wall was absolute garbage. A couple moments of footage does not make up for the fact that I learned nothing and had to sit through people who have nothing to do with the album drone on and on about how much they love this song, or how this song inspired them to sing. That should not be the purpose of a documentary that promises, in its press release, to go behind the scenes on what is widely considered one of the greatest pop albums ever recorded.

Let someone else take over.

 

[HIStory]

You should realize that not everything is or should be mainly aimed at the hard core fan base, which is relatively few compared to the general public. Maybe most of the info we have seen in these docs is nothing new for hard core fans (there are not very much new info one can give to hard core fans any more about MJ anyway), but it is new to the general public. Judging by the very positive reactions to Lee's docs in the general public, judging by the fact how it boosts MJ's record sales, it rasises enthusiasm for MJ it's very unfair to trash these docs like you do IMO.

I do not mind if Spike Lee makes more docs as long as they have the same effect. What harm positive docs can do? Whoever does not like them should just skip them and maybe one day we will have a doc that everyone is satisfied with - although I doubt that knowing MJ's fan base...

 

[barbee0715]

Let's be honest, his documentaries are not very interesting. Most of us watch them only for the live footage.
I've seen new threads about Dangerous 25 but if he's on the project again, I'd not buy it.
The "The Life Of An Icon" documentary by David Gest was way more better. Clearly, IDGAF about a guy who think Michael said "Keep on with the fork" on DSTYGE, that's not what I wanna see about the creation of his albums.

Spike Lee don't deserve to make a documentary of Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible. Even Michael wasn't satisfied by his work on They Don't Care About Us. The man died so now they do what they want ?
These 3 "periods" shouldn't be ****ed up like the 2 previous one. Especially Dangerous and HIStory. I don't know about Invincible due to Michael's problems. But we've so much to see of Dangerous and HIStory.

You want a Dangerous Documentary where Zayn Malik told how Jam inspired him ? Really ? Again ? We could see studios footage, dancing rehearsal footage, Michael playing at neverland, a lot of stuffs from each era and we're gonna let them making another shitty released ? Plus, don't tell me "Oh they don't have footage blabla.." because it's not true and y'all know it.

By the way, it's only my opinion. Just wanna know yours.

You don't want Spike Lee on any documentaries because you think the David Gest one was better? There was an awful lot of tabloidy stuff in the David Gest one, but I tried to give that a pass.
There wasn't anything especially educational or informative in it and that's what I look for in a doc.

You mentioned twice about artists talking about "forks" and who cares about Zayn Malik talking-so you don't like that, but then you said you don't mind the current artists talking about Michael and understand why they do that.

You said Michael was unhappy with Spike's work-and therefore, made the prison version of TDCAU. It seems like Michael thought the Brazil one wasn't hard hitting enough and didn't get the point across. If he was REALLY unhappy with Spike's work, he would have hired a different director for the prison one and scrapped the Brazil one. Instead, he released both.

We got studio footage in BAD 25 and behind the scenes in the videos. We got performance footage and interviews with Michael in both.
I think that your only complaint is that you want more of Michael playing at Neverland??? How is that going to help understand how the album was made? Spike did a fantastic job of explaining cultural context in Off the Wall, and come to think of it, BAD 25 also-and that is a MAJOR component on why and how an album is made.

My only complaint is that they both could have easily been an hour longer and I think they should have extended versions for the people who buy the DVD.

 

[Michaels Lover]

no matter who makes it, there will always be someone not satisfied with it. you can talk about what you don't like and this and that, til the end of time, there will ALWAYS be someone who doesn't agree with you. we're all different, and we want different things. it's human nature, that's how we work. I have seen people praise the documentary, and I have seen people who don't. the same would happen if another director made it. you can not satisfy every single person on the face of the earth. it's impossible

 

[Michaels Lover]

I think that your only complaint is that you want more of Michael playing at Neverland??? How is that going to help understand how the album was made?

lol!!! :rofl:

 

[HIStory]

Michael didn't like TDCAU Brazilian Version, that's why they made the prison one.

Any evidence of him not liking the Brazil version of TDCAU and Spike's work generally, or is this just how you want to interpret the fact that there are two videos?

Like Barbee pointed out if MJ had not liked SL's work so much then it does not really make sense for him to hire Spike for the second one as well. In fact, if that's your only basis to this claim, one could as well as argue that he made two videos of the same song with Spike exactly because he liked his work very much. Considering that both versions were released during MJ's lifetime, that to me would make more sense than MJ not liking Spike's work.

BTW, TDCAU Brazil version is MJ's 2nd most popular video on YouTube - second only behind Thriller. What a horrible piece of work, indeed!

I also agree with Barbee that David Gest's doc was very tabloidy and that's the least what we need about MJ any more. We have enough of that already, the focus needs to be brought back to his art. (Not to mention that I have huge doubts about a lot of things Gest says about MJ. IMO a lot of it he simply makes up.)

 

[Michaels Lover]

Spike directed BOTH of what eventually became 2 separate videos. the original concept for TDCAU was meant to be a combination of the 2 videos. and they shot the prison version first, then they went to Brazil. feel free to hear Spike tell it himself in The Making Of TDCAU

 

[innuendo141]

I also agree with Barbee that David Gest's doc was very tabloidy and that's the least what we need about MJ any more. We have enough of that already, the focus needs to be brought back to his art. (Not to mention that I have huge doubts about a lot of things Gest says about MJ. IMO a lot of it he simply makes up.)

Ive not seen Gests documentary, and never will. Never believe a word he says and from what I remember reading at the time the documentary seems to be everything I expected, and less.

While I didn't think the OTW doc was amazing, why stop someone from doing something positive? I'd much rather see a documentary celebrating Michael's work than another plastic cash-in like Xscape any day.

 

[SheilaMJFan4Ever]

So we've nothing to say because he made it with the heart ?

You created a thread ASKING for people's opinions, then complain when they give it. Sounds like you're just here to troll and/or start some drama.

 

[Psychoniff]

lougrizli, what an utter fail this was for you! The whole MJJC community has rallied behind Spike to contiune documenting MJ's artistry.

 

[innuendo141]

lougrizli, what an utter fail this was for you! The whole MJJC community has rallied behind Spike to contiune documenting MJ's artistry.

Not necessarily. I don't think he's doing a bad job, but I wouldn't mind someone different for a different approach to another album either.

 

[ChrisC]

I haven't yet seen Off the Wall but Bad 25 was definitely lacking.

I suppose it'd make sense for Spike to finish the trilogy and do Thriller. But I wouldn't be interested in Spike doing any more.

 

[AlwaysThere]

You should realize that not everything is or should be mainly aimed at the hard core fan base, which is relatively few compared to the general public. Maybe most of the info we have seen in these docs is nothing new for hard core fans (there are not very much new info one can give to hard core fans any more about MJ anyway), but it is new to the general public. Judging by the very positive reactions to Lee's docs in the general public, judging by the fact how it boosts MJ's record sales, it rasises enthusiasm for MJ it's very unfair to trash these docs like you do IMO.

I do not mind if Spike Lee makes more docs as long as they have the same effect. What harm positive docs can do? Whoever does not like them should just skip them and maybe one day we will have a doc that everyone is satisfied with - although I doubt that knowing MJ's fan base...

Going over information that those of us on these forums know already is not the problem - as you said, most of it is not universally-known so it's for the best that it is addressed. The problem is that Spike seems to have a misunderstanding about what should be said as opposed to what could be said.

We COULD spend fifteen minutes with Questlove discussing how much he loves the album. We don't NEED to. We NEED to give a look at how Michael's songwriting expanded dramatically during the Off the Wall sessions alone. We NEED to listen to demos to get a grasp at how the album progressed. We NEED people like Stevie Wonder and Tom Bahler to speak more in-depth. We NEED more audio clips like the alternate cut of the ending of "She's Out of My Life".

The last half of the documentary is the equivalent of a YouTube compilation video of various celebrities speaking about the album that you or I could stitch together on any editing software. It doesn't reach the heights of the first half and, in my opinion, fails completely.

Perhaps some may consider this overly negative. I personally won't sit back and just figure, "Well, it's positive for Michael's image, so I guess it's fine." It's great that Michael's catalog is getting some overdue attention, but that doesn't mean I should sit back and shrug it off. The worldwide genuine acclaim for the documentary isn't surprising because it is, like I said, the equivalent of a puff piece that just highlights influence rather than gives context.

It's just disappointing that we are finally getting level-headed documentaries on Michael (the Beatles and Elvis have countless) and, while both of them have the same problems, the second one is just awful.

 

[OnirMJ]

Michael didn't like TDCAU Brazilian Version, that's why they made the prison one.

That is just false statement.

Nobody said that only one documentary for each era is allowed but you know how the Estate is, it's not necessary to explain you how selfish they are. The Bad Documentary was better than OTW but still, not as good as it deserves.

How the Estate is? Selfish? WTF? In my opinion Off The Wall is better than Bad 25. But I agree with you, they both could have been better.

"If the documentary was about the making of the album then it would have been called Making of Off The Wall." So why Bad 25 isn't called "Making of Bad" ?

Don't understand the question. It's not called "Making of Bad" because it isn't documentary about making of Bad album. It's about Bad album in general (including the influence that album had on the world and young generations of artists) and that era including the short films and the tour.

Most of us think that the documentaries were good ? Nah, SOME of you are satisfied with what you got. Not everybody. But I still respect your opinion.

Not everybody likes them. But more people think they are good, yes.

They do what's best for Michael's legacy ? You sure about that ? They only want to know how much money they made at the end of the year that's why they give us a Bad Tour in horrible quality, an album with 6 tracks known on 8 and 2 documentaries who could have been way, way, WAY better. Especially the last one.

They try to do what they think is the best for Michael Jackson and the Estate, and yes ultimately for his Legacy (they don't succeed every time). I'm sure, yes. Making money is very important part of administering the Estate, it's very important part of their job.

They gave us poor VHS Bad Tour because they don't have any better source (video + audio) - they said that very clearly in a public statement. They released that VHS tape because fans insisted. They didn't have to do that. In my opinion that tape should have remained unreleased until they found the original film reels. They should have released a Japan show instead. Yeah, they fu*ked up here, but they did it under fan pressure.

"an album with 6 tracks known on 8" - Are you talking about Xscape? And how is that their fault? For that you can thank Steve and other leakers, "collectors" and "traders" in 2000 Watts. I see people encourage them to do that and then later they complain about Estate releasing unreleased Michael Jackson material. I said it million times, the leaks are bad and they should stop.

I agree that the documentaries could have been better especially the first one. But they ain't that bad and it's ridiculous to even compare them with half-tabloid unofficial stuff. That's just not fair.

 

[OnirMJ]

Stevie Wonder gets about thirty seconds to explain where I Can't Help It came from.

Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster get about twenty seconds.

Bruce Swedien gets about twenty seconds.

I agree with this 100%. You are absolutely right about this.

For other commentators, I really liked Mark Ronson. I agree about Kobe, he seemed out of place there, I didn't like his inclusion. Questlove had really good and really bad moments. Some of his comments should have been cut out.

 

[OnirMJ]

We COULD spend fifteen minutes with Questlove discussing how much he loves the album. We don't NEED to. We NEED to give a look at how Michael's songwriting expanded dramatically during the Off the Wall sessions alone. We NEED to listen to demos to get a grasp at how the album progressed. We NEED people like Stevie Wonder and Tom Bahler to speak more in-depth. We NEED more audio clips like the alternate cut of the ending of "She's Out of My Life".

I agree with this part. (Although Questlove didn't have 15 minutes on screen and he didn't speak just about how much he loves the album).

The last half of the documentary... It doesn't reach the heights of the first half.

I agree with this. First part of the documentary is much better.

 

[SoCav]

I certainly would prefer another director to take over for future projects. I thought Bad 25 had several flaws but was interesting overall (the unreleased footage helped). This latest OTW docu was really pretty bad though, imo.

Just ask yourself: what does a viewer really learn from this documentary about the making of Off The Wall? You can get an idea of the events leading up to it, but because of the format that was used you got 20 years condensed into 45 minutes, which automatically means it is not very in depth. Then you learn how people like Rosie Perez and Questlove felt and feel about the album, and how it influenced some current musicians like Mark Ronson. Hardly any information is presented about the actual making of the album. The few moments where it does get into it, like the interview with Tom Bahler, it is incredibly brief (cause it's more interesting to show a mash-up of Delirious and unreleased live footage of She's Out Of My Life).

The retort that not everything has to be aimed at the hardcore fanbase makes no sense to me. Is it really more interesting for the general public to hear that it would be embarrassing to dance to Get On The Floor by yourself, that Rock With You was a popular rollerskating track, and that Spike Lee's love interest was not interested in seeing The Wiz with him (seriously, the guy interviewed himself for THAT?), than to learn more about Michael's recording sessions, the songwriting, how the songs were developed, and live footage? Cause I do not believe that at all. I'm not talking about technical details here like which synth was used on which track. I would love to hear that sort of stuff myself but understand that that is probably uninteresting to most people. But something like hearing an early demo of I Can't Help It, that was recorded live with a band? I think anyone would prefer that over some of the non-stories we got.

For the people saying we should be happy because it is positive - well sure, it is nice that we at least get a documentary that is positive. But just that does not make it good. And let's be realistic: the Estate is only going to release a documentary like this once, unless we're perhaps talking about the far-far future. So it is easy to say "why would you want to stop anyone from making something positive? Anyone is free to make what they want" but that's not how it works. Only an officially endorsed documentary is going to work, because you need access to Michael's music and image to really make a great documentary. And they're not going to give that to more than one person.

 

[Bringing Brighter Days]

Going over information that those of us on these forums know already is not the problem - as you said, most of it is not universally-known so it's for the best that it is addressed. The problem is that Spike seems to have a misunderstanding about what should be said as opposed to what could be said.

We COULD spend fifteen minutes with Questlove discussing how much he loves the album. We don't NEED to. We NEED to give a look at how Michael's songwriting expanded dramatically during the Off the Wall sessions alone. We NEED to listen to demos to get a grasp at how the album progressed. We NEED people like Stevie Wonder and Tom Bahler to speak more in-depth. We NEED more audio clips like the alternate cut of the ending of "She's Out of My Life".

The last half of the documentary is the equivalent of a YouTube compilation video of various celebrities speaking about the album that you or I could stitch together on any editing software. It doesn't reach the heights of the first half and, in my opinion, fails completely.

Perhaps some may consider this overly negative. I personally won't sit back and just figure, "Well, it's positive for Michael's image, so I guess it's fine." It's great that Michael's catalog is getting some overdue attention, but that doesn't mean I should sit back and shrug it off. The worldwide genuine acclaim for the documentary isn't surprising because it is, like I said, the equivalent of a puff piece that just highlights influence rather than gives context.

It's just disappointing that we are finally getting level-headed documentaries on Michael (the Beatles and Elvis have countless) and, while both of them have the same problems, the second one is just awful.

I wont be complaining

Dah

Oooooooooooooooo


Cause this is loooove poooOooooooweeerrr


Oooooooooookk

 

[Bringing Brighter Days]

I certainly would prefer another director to take over for future projects. I thought Bad 25 had several flaws but was interesting overall (the unreleased footage helped). This latest OTW docu was really pretty bad though, imo.

Just ask yourself: what does a viewer really learn from this documentary about the making of Off The Wall? You can get an idea of the events leading up to it, but because of the format that was used you got 20 years condensed into 45 minutes, which automatically means it is not very in depth. Then you learn how people like Rosie Perez and Questlove felt and feel about the album, and how it influenced some current musicians like Mark Ronson. Hardly any information is presented about the actual making of the album. The few moments where it does get into it, like the interview with Tom Bahler, it is incredibly brief (cause it's more interesting to show a mash-up of Delirious and unreleased live footage of She's Out Of My Life).

The retort that not everything has to be aimed at the hardcore fanbase makes no sense to me. Is it really more interesting for the general public to hear that it would be embarrassing to dance to Get On The Floor by yourself, that Rock With You was a popular rollerskating track, and that Spike Lee's love interest was not interested in seeing The Wiz with him (seriously, the guy interviewed himself for THAT?), than to learn more about Michael's recording sessions, the songwriting, how the songs were developed, and live footage? Cause I do not believe that at all. I'm not talking about technical details here like which synth was used on which track. I would love to hear that sort of stuff myself but understand that that is probably uninteresting to most people. But something like hearing an early demo of I Can't Help It, that was recorded live with a band? I think anyone would prefer that over some of the non-stories we got.

For the people saying we should be happy because it is positive - well sure, it is nice that we at least get a documentary that is positive. But just that does not make it good. And let's be realistic: the Estate is only going to release a documentary like this once, unless we're perhaps talking about the far-far future. So it is easy to say "why would you want to stop anyone from making something positive? Anyone is free to make what they want" but that's not how it works. Only an officially endorsed documentary is going to work, because you need access to Michael's music and image to really make a great documentary. And they're not going to give that to more than one person.

1. We'll never get the behind the scene take during the recording sessions because Michael Jackson never operated like that to allow such footage to be seen when he turned solo

2. What is viewed as the general public of 2016, many people in 2016 who bought OTW during its original release had just as much cache to be considered hardcore fans too and probably give a more accurate account of those times as the people featured in the documentary

 

[KOPV]

So we've nothing to say because he made it with the heart ? I'm only sayin that they could make way better than these 2. (Bad & OTW) We will probably never have another chance for a documentary of these eras. He messed up everything, IMO.

That's fine.. what Im saying is.. if another director wants to take shot at it, and can do better.. BEAUTIFUL! but there is no reason to stop Spike to let another direct.. Why not just have more documentaries??

2 directors working on separate documentaries just means MORE for us

 

[#MJforever57]

My opinion is why stop anyone from working on positive MJ material.. where the scale of interesting it is, why would we ever stop someone from doing it? Plus Spike is a highly decorated director that does not NEED MJ docs.. this is from the heart!

I agree with you on this 100% and above. We need to see more positive out there on Michael and to me Spike is doing a beautiful job. It time the world knew who Michael Jackson reality is the new genatration that is come up need to see what Michael has done in his life all you see is alot of media trash. I hope Spike will do Thriller i like to see that happen.

 

[AlwaysThere]

I agree with this 100%. You are absolutely right about this.

For other commentators, I really liked Mark Ronson. I agree about Kobe, he seemed out of place there, I didn't like his inclusion. Questlove had really good and really bad moments. Some of his comments should have been cut out.

Agreed! Having contemporary artists on board to discuss how the album influenced them is perfectly fine but they should make sense. Questlove did have his moments, and Mark Ronson overall was a wonderful choice I have to admit, but there was just too much of "this is why I enjoy the album" as opposed to "this is how the album was made".

Kobe Bryant just made no sense. Why was he there? How did Off the Wall influence his basketball playing?

I agree with this part. (Although Questlove didn't have 15 minutes on screen and he didn't speak just about how much he loves the album.

Oh, most certainly. But overall he was on screen at least once every few minutes, which is unbelievably excessive. Some of his comments were actually insightful and showed the influence that the album resonated, but others fell flat entirely - I wasn't interested in what he thought the lyrics to Don't Stop were and don't exactly know why that clip was included.