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.