1D in 3D for squeaky clean doco
ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US. You think it's tough living your life in a boy-band? Then try living your life as a boy-brand.
ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US. You think it's tough living your life in a boy-band? Then try living your life as a boy-brand.
So goes the sole lesson to be learned from One Direction: This is Us, a piffling concert doco about five young men who have temporarily harnessed the power to make many millions of young women scream.
Filmed during the final phase of a punishing global touring schedule that only wrapped a few months ago, This is Us hosts a predictably sanitised celebration of One Direction's extraordinary success to date.
You want deep and meaningful insights into life as it is lived at the eye of the One Direction hurricane?
Not gonna happen.
You want the lads gabbing about how much they owe it all to their mums, their dads and their fans?
Would you mind ever so much if they took their shirts off every now and then?
How about a peek inside the bedrooms where they used to sleep as kids? Or a front-row seat for the zany backstage antics of the boys? Perhaps some bonus thanking of fans?
Is gonna happen.
It would be unfair to deride This is Us too much, as its only job is to preach to the pre-converted.
The maths have already been done. If one in ten One Direction fans worldwide shell out for a ticket to the movie - which is in 3D in most cinemas - then it really doesn't matter if the half-believers or the haters don't show up.
As there is no pressing need to impress here, the pacing of This is Us is leisurely at best, lazy at worst.
The live-on-stage sequences happen along every five or ten minutes, and are more about generating gyrating close-ups of each individual member than showcasing the music to any worthwhile effect.
In fact, what becomes apparent very quickly is that One Direction seem oddly disconnected from their songs on both a creative and personal level. Each number is just another verse-chorus-verse job that must be done.
Pop music has always been an assembly-line business, particularly in the field that One Direction has conquered. The trick is making it not look like the repetitive, mundane work it actually is.
After such a long shift on the road and in the spotlight, One Direction understandably come off as a touch tired and jaded in This is Us.
However, there is a genuine camaraderie amongst the group that director Morgan Spurlock (playing it inexplicably straight here) is ready to capture at every opportunity.
You wouldn't call it friendship, but there is definitely a shared bond there that has allowed One Direction to keep sight of where they've come from during their meteoric rise to fame.
> ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US [PG]
Director: Morgan Spurlock (Super-Size Me)
Starring: Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson
Rating: 2/5
"This is them ... kind of"