Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

Today was, apparently, Super Bowl Sunday. This fact would have completely eluded me had a local pizza place not emailed me about their "Big Game Special." The special was, admittedly, a pretty good deal, so Menchi, Diatron, and I decided to take them up on the offer.

With our pizzas in hand and an evening ahead of us, we settle down to watch some DVDs at the apartment. None of us have cable, and we've never really missed it. I mentioned I have recently received Michael Jackson's Moonwalker through Netflix, and we all unanimously decided that we had to watch it. Before we even popped in the disc, the joke had already formed, "Screw the Super Bowl, we're watching Moonwalker!" Little did we know how right we were.

I think we all entered this movie expecting something corny and perhaps even laughably bad. Having played the Sega Genesis game based on the film, we had high hopes for just how inexplicably bizarre and random it would be. The weird thing is, we were sort of right, and yet... it wasn't "so bad it's good," it was simply amazing. It wasn't laughably bad, even though the plot was contrived, the special effects outrageous, and everything overdone and over the top. It was good. It was great. It had us cheering louder than our neighbor's Super Bowl party. See that image of us as the Reaction Guys, poised on the edge of our seats, enraptured in the excitedment? That was how we were for the entirety of this movie.

I think what you have to understand with this movie is that it is quite literally straight out of Michael Jackson's imagination. And that's a good thing, if you're open to it. It's an adventure. Who cares if it doesn't make any sense that he can transform into a car, robot, and spaceship? Who cares if there's no explanation behind about 90% of this film. It's Michael Jackson, and that's enough. It's music video logic. And honestly, this film is a lot like a bunch of extended music videos.

I mean, really, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker is the greatest tribute to Michael Jackson there is. It was a tribute to his life made not after his death and the wake of his failed career and decent into papparazzi hell, but rather while he was still in his prime. It's Michael Jackson being and doing everything that made him great, that made him an icon and the King of Pop.

And please, don't make the obvious joke about the plot of Michael Jackson saving children. If you ask me, I think he was a sad, lonely man who just wanted to be a kid again. Just watch this movie and you'll agree with me that all he ever really wanted was what he could never have—his childhood back.