Review: "One Direction: This Is Us" is New Kids movie for this generation

"One Direction: This Is Us" G
     Morgan Spurlock didn't get to do the Justin Bieber documentary, so they let him do the One Direction version some years later. It's now 2013 and the kids born around 2000 get another boy band, studio made boy band. British version of American Idol, X Factor, is an international sensation, studio marketing thing, and they make bands. Back in 2010, after a rousing competition, they selected five late teenage boys to form a rock band called One Direction. This is their story, even if the title is a riff on the a Beatles, and others. It's okay because they are a boy band, and every boy band before them, going back into time to the '50s really, has had a slew of devoted fans waiting and screaming to see them on stage.
     Naill, Zayne, Liam and Harry seem like handsome fun blokes, which was probably the appeal putting them together, and at times their revelry appears genuine, like driving around in as golf cart, or talking about spooky stand ups, their own personages on cardboard, or dressing up to fool fans, or playing soccer. Being tired going from concert to concert mirrors the Bieber one, and really in that was more genuine. One of their new songs parodies corporate made bands, which is terribly ironic consider yes, you are a made up band! Their parents have barely seen them since the won the Factor show, but one of them buys his Mom a house. Made you wonder if when they aren't famous anymore will the bank take the house back. Ha.
     It could have helped had they actually explained some of the business, like in the Bieber one, that the studio that owns them actually paid for all of their stuff, or something. Then fans aren't as crazy as in the Bieber one, or at least are never interviewed. At one point one of them dresses as a fake security guy to tell some fans they stink. Hopefully they got it was a joke.
     With the ridiculous rise of instant access internet to everywhere, all at once, they will not be the first boy band to rise incredibly and be everywhere in three years. It's a new sensation. The Net that is.
     As for the songs, including an awful Blondie cover, are kind of same like, and the whole appeal is that self esteem troubled girls will listen to music where the cute boys say nice things about their looks. Literally, that is the theme of half if not most of the songs, and they're all very drab. But when you are 13 and a girl, you haven't heard the crooning of InSync or New Kids or even an old Journey song.
     Then the fans grow older and they move on. Doing a movie now makes sense. By 2016-2018 the band will likely be another memory, fond for some, maybe not so for others.
     Older siblings and parents of the 1960s might recall the Beatles along the same lines, but they were actually highly talented musicians that could sing and play, and they're still remembered nearly 50 years later. 1D will not be. In the 1980s it was New Kids on the Block, and in the late part of that, girl bands like the Spice Girls. They are still remembered.      
     The 2D version of the 3D concert is enough. You really don't need the gimmicky flying at your face 3D.
     So technically wise the move is all right, a little lazy, and visually tries to be interesting with nice flashy venues, from the famous concert halls in New York, MSG, and London, O2 Arena to other parts. It just needed a bit more heart. Charming buddies can only go so far.
     And somehow This Is Us seems an awkward title.
     Go and see it if you're a recent teenage girl. It is not recommended if you are a boy.
     Review by Adam Browne