The new Michael Jackson film, This Is It, premiered at 1am this morning at the Odeon Leicester Square and simultaneously in 18 cities around the world, much to the delight of diehard fans. The thing is, IS this it?

Jackson’s early demise has secured the king of pop a place in the Peter Pan Hall of Fame, along with Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison and Elvis. In the ‘sort of’ words of First World War Poet, Laurence Binyon, Michael Jackson shall not grow old as we that are left grow old … we will remember him.

It seems to me that after only 16-weeks, we have not yet had time to forget him.

Jackson’s life was not run-of-the-mill by any means. Famous since he was pushed into show business as a young boy and trained to perform to order by his over-zealous father, Jackson was the first to admit that childhood passed him by. Adolescence and early manhood for Jackson comprised mainly of wowing the fans at concerts, churning out hit albums and making groundbreaking videos. There wasn’t much time left for the kind of pursuits that most young people enjoy.

I won’t go into too much detail about his personal life because you have heard it all before and this is not the time to regurgitate Neverland, chimpanzees and court cases. Suffice to say there was a huge gap in Jackson’s life which he tried to bridge with numerous controversial pursuits.

I think it is fair to say that life eventually caught up with Michael. Various factors amalgamated until death took him by the hand at the tragically young age of 50, very young by today’s standards. He wasn’t Peter Pan after all, just a very famous, extremely talented and mortal man.

So, his body barely cold, why is his life still being exploited so soon after his demise? One would perhaps think that out of decency and respect, whoever decided to put This Is It together would have waited at least until the first anniversary of Jackson’s death before distributing it.

The simple fact of the matter is that in death as in life, Michael Jackson is still being used to make megabucks for the people behind the murky, musical scenes.

This, most definitely, IS it.

Erastus