Michael Review
Michael captures the spectacle of Jackson’s rise, but avoids the deeper questions that define his legacy.
Jafaar Jackson in Michael. Courtesy of Lionsgate
Director Antoine Fuqua and writer John Logan’s Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, premieres this week after delays and reshoots. Knowing it was co-produced and partially funded by Jackson’s estate, I expected it wouldn’t be very critical. I was right, but that isn’t the only reason it fails to impress.
The story follows Jackson from childhood, through his first shows with the Jackson 5 in Gary, Indiana, in the 1960s, to a 1988 concert on his Bad world tour in England. Deep into its 130-minute runtime, I wondered how the film would handle the controversies that defined his later life. It doesn’t. They aren’t addressed at all.
This traces back to the extended reshoots in 2024. The entire third act of the film had to be rewritten because the filmmakers discovered that the Jackson estate had not disclosed a settlement with the family of Jordan Chandler, who accused the artist of sexual abuse at the age of 13. That settlement barred Chandler from being depicted in any film about Jackson. According to Variety, Michael was originally supposed to explore the impact of the child molestation accusations on his life. With the reshoots, all of that was scrapped.
Colman Domingo in Michael. Courtesy of Lionsgate
Even so, I had an inkling of where it would have landed. Michael is portrayed as innocent and childlike, even in his adult life. He connects more easily with kids than adults. His bedroom is filled with toys. He couldn’t possibly. I’m not saying that he did, but the movie’s stance seems clear.
The movie was reshaped to be entirely about his rise to fame and his desire to go solo, to be free of his controlling, abusive tyrant of a father, Joe Jackson (Colman Domingo). The dynamic with his father aside, the movie doesn’t do much else to give depth to Michael. How did he grow as an artist? We don’t really know. He’s just told he’s special, that there’s no one like him, that he’s the best. And he just is. He’s lonely, so he adopts animals as companions, including a CG Bubbles the chimp. It just is, and the movie doesn’t dig any deeper. We get a brief hint of his painkiller addiction after the Pepsi commercial accident leaves him severely burned, but it never develops. The result is a story that drifts, and at times just feels dull.
The filmmaking itself is on the bland side. It plays like a Lifetime movie, very safe and flat. There’s no personality here; you’d never guess it was made by Antoine Fuqua. Still, there’s no denying that Jackson’s music is electric, and there’s power in the musical performances in the movie. That’s in part thanks to Jaafar Jackson’s performance. The young actor, son of Jermaine Jackson, does a great job of capturing his uncle’s movement, mannerisms, and voice, and he resembles Michael more than just a bit.
Jafaar Jackson in Michael. Courtesy of Lionsgate
The original cut of Michael reportedly ran more than three and a half hours long, obviously including the events that had to be cut. I would be curious to see that version; maybe there’s a better movie in there somewhere. If a sequel comes—the movie threatens us with a ‘His story continues’ title card at the end—I’m sure we’ll see at least some of it. Michael Jackson was no doubt an incredible, singular artist, but he was also a complicated figure. All the more reason that I think he deserves a more nuanced portrait that explores both his talent and the controversies he faced. This movie isn’t it, and the inevitable follow-up needs to go deeper.
Michael
A shallow biopic that captures the spectacle, but avoids the depth needed to make Michael Jackson’s story resonate.
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