'This is It'

Michael Jackson delivered a posthumous thriller on Tuesday as fans flocked to worldwide premieres of a documentary film billed as the final concert performance of the King of Pop.

Four months after Jackson's death, red carpets were rolled out for 18 simultaneous screenings on five continents for 'This Is It', culled from more than 100 hours of footage taken from rehearsals for the pop icon's comeback.

The Los Angeles premiere began as parts of the city were plunged into darkness by outages caused by powerful winds.

Gesturing to the gusts buffeting the event, Jackson's former manager Frank DiLeo joked: "He's happy. You can feel him spinning around in the air here ... He's looking down right now laughing his rear end off."

The Hollywood screening mirrored events being held in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America before the movie makes its formal release in 99 countries on Wednesday for a limited two-week release.

During the screening at Fourways Mall in Johannesburg, the audience sang and clapped along.

"The film was emotional and I felt I was there saying goodbye to Michael," said a fan who had bought tickets to see Jackson at the O2 Arena in London.

In Beijing, a troupe of Jackson impersonators grabbed their crotches and moonwalked for hundreds of screaming fans as the movie premiered in China.

Fans wearing single white gloves and clutching posters of the late pop star shrieked as the lookalikes danced in unison to hits like 'Thriller' and 'Beat It' outside the central Beijing cinema where the film was screened at midnight.

One diehard Chinese fan, 60-year-old Zhao Min, said Jackson's music was "full of vitality."

"I love his moonwalk very much," Zhao said.

Early reviews of the movie Tuesday were positive. The USA Today newspaper said that while the film did not "restore Jackson to his past glory" it did "offer glimpses of his bygone greatness."

"The songs remind us that early this summer, the world lost a genuine, if genuinely troubled, star," the paper opined.

Melanie Hillman, a television producer who attended the Los Angeles premiere, said the movie had captured the imagination of the audience.

"His way of rehearsing was that he was giving 110 percent. It was unbelievable, you could feel it," she said.

"Sometimes you were sitting in your seat like, 'wow.' People were crying, clapping, cheering."

Watch the Zoopy video of the premiere at Cavendish Square, Cape Town!

AFP

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