Largely functioning as highlight reels of Michael Jackson’s biggest achievements in the first half of his career, from his childhood as part of The Jackson 5 to his solo venture in the late 1970s - early 1980s, Michael misses some opportunities to excavate the icon’s inner psyche in favor of crowd-pleasing spectacle.
But, boy, what a spectacle it was!
Antoine Fuqua’s Michael attempts to capture both the rise of Michael Jackson and the personal struggles behind the King of Pop’s superstardom.
🎬 Quick Verdict:
⭐ Rating: 7/10
🎤 Genre: Musical Biopic / Drama
⏱ Runtime: ~2h 45m
👍 Best for: Michael Jackson fans, music lovers, spectacle-driven biopics
👎 Not for: Viewers wanting a deep exploration of Jackson’s personal life
Michael Review: A Spectacular but Safe Michael Jackson Biopic
Michael review
The film opens with a shot of Michael Jackson (Jaafar Jackson, the superstar’s own nephew) ready to take the stage for his iconic “Bad” performance in 1988, before moonwalking back to the past. Suddenly, we’re in 1966, a young Michael trained by his stern (more like, abusive) father, Joe Jackson (Colman Domingo), alongside his brothers. The Jackson 5 was born in a modest living room in Gary, Indiana, where Joe is bootcamping his kids to stardom, eager to escape their blue-collar poverty. From there, the film glides through Michael’s rise to stardom and his difficult relationship with his father as he grows too big to control.
The film has been dividing critics and audiences, who see the film from its very, admittedly… one-sided portrayal of the icon.
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Jaafar Jackson Delivers a Star-Making Performance
Michael review
Those who like it embrace its concert-film extravagance. The stage scenes are total crowd pleasers. Featuring the star’s most beloved hits like “Thriller” and “Bad”, these scenes are well directed and clearly designed for big screen viewing, anchored by Jaafar’s magnetic, almost shot-for-shot recreation of the original stages. The role could have easily veered into impersonation territory, but the 30-year-old rookie embodies his uncle’s spirit without being a caricature, a tall order even for a seasoned actor. It helps that he’s a great performer himself, which is pivotal to the many live performance sequences in the movie. To play Michael, you not only need the talents but also the gravitas, and he seems to have inherited it.
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The Film’s Biggest Problem: It Never Goes Deep Enough
Michael review
Those who don’t enjoy the film rightfully point to its superficiality. The film’s script never goes as deep as it needs to be. It just breezes past Michael’s greatest hits like a recap, glossing over the creative journey that made Michael Michael in favor of highlighting his headline-making travails.
There are so many wasted potentials on this front.
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The Missing Jackson Family Dynamics Hurt the Story
Michael review
His siblings are a huge presence in Michael’s early life and career, but they are merely treated as background characters to his ascent. No depth, specific dynamics, or any attempt to define each of them. For example, they could have explored how the siblings react to their baby brother’s superstardom despite starting out together. That seems like such an easy shot, but the film is more eager to move to the next big highlight to go deeper. Puzzling, given the family’s involvement in the movie as producers. It is also a huge missed opportunity: if you know anything about the real-life Jackson siblings, their hijinks over the years could fill five seasons of soap opera on their own.
There's also glaring omissions like sister Janet Jackson being completely erased from the movie (the real life Janet declined to appear), the various reshoots to remove certain aspects of Michael’s life due to legal concerns, resulting in instrumental figures in Michael’s life, like Diana Ross (to be played by Kat Graham in the movie, but was removed for legal reasons), to be missing from the final cut.
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Michael Avoids the Most Controversial Parts of Jackson’s Life
Michael’s own internal turmoil was also never truly explored. The singer’s inner struggles were no stranger to those who grew up in his heyday, from his battle with vitiligo, the whitewashing accusations, to his numerous high-profile relationships. These could’ve made the film a powerful ode to the King of Pop, Michael, navigating between mega stardom and his endless personal struggles, but director Antoine Fuqua merely touches on these topics on a surface level. When it comes to the more complicated aspects of the star’s life, the film’s universal approach seems to be brushing them off as quickly as possible.
Still, for all its omissions, the film succeeds in several key areas. Let’s look at what the film does feature.
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Colman Domingo’s Joe Jackson Steals Every Scene
If there is one dynamic the film is eager to explore, it’s Michael’s fraught relationship with Joe, Sr. The film did a great job depicting a nuanced portrayal of Joe, the dichotomy between his violent parenting and the major success he turned his kids into. Colman Domingo delivers a deeply menacing performance as Joe Jackson, portraying the belt-cracking patriarch with chilling intensity.
The film also spends a considerable time capturing Michael’s alienation from his relatives, which stems from the very fact that he’s quite literally the special one. Jaafar, too, is great at this more vulnerable side of Michael. There’s one scene involving Twister in the movie that just makes you want to hug young Michael. Michael Jackson’s larger-than-life superstardom often overshadows the soft-spoken and deeply vulnerable person he was offstage. In the film’s rare moments of fragility, that part of him shines.
Antoine Fuqua’s Michael aims to celebrate the King of Pop’s legacy through spectacle, music, and emotional drama.
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Final Verdict: Is Michael Worth Watching?
Michael review
As far as musical biopics go, Michael feels pretty solidly formulaic. Particularly when put side by side with Bohemian Rhapsody, which shares a producer, Graham King, with Michael, the film almost follows a beat-by-beat template set by the former. Even with its flaws, the sheer scale of Michael Jackson’s life and legacy makes the film consistently entertaining. If you come for an in-depth look at Michael the human, you will come away dissatisfied. But if you come to be awed by Michael the star, this film will give you plenty of thrill(er) to behold.
Rating: 7/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆
Do you think Michael should have explored the darker parts of Jackson’s life more deeply?
