Time: 127 Minutes
Age Rating: M
Cast:
Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson
Juliano Krue Valdi as young Michael
Colman Domingo as Joseph Jackson
Nia Long as Katherine Scruse-Jackson
Miles Teller as John Branca
KeiLyn Durrel Jones as Bill Bray
Laura Harrier as Suzanne de Passe
Jessica Sula as La Toya Jackson
Mike Myers as Walter Yetnikoff
Director: Antoine Fuqua

I really wasn’t looking forward to the Michael Jackson movie. I am very sceptical about any music biopics, with them falling into the same formula and cliches, along with having the same problems. The fact that it shared the same producer and editor as Bohemian Rhapsody and clearly had the involvement of the Michael Jackson estate to a great degree didn’t bode too well, but of course, I needed to see it for myself before having an opinion on it. Having watched it, I think Michael is probably the worst modern music biopic I’ve seen since Bohemian Rhapsody.

Addressing the elephant in the room about the allegations against Michael Jackson and the movie not including any mentions of them: a lot can be said, but my main issues with the movie lies outside of its takes on what Jackson has or hasn’t done in this area. I’m also not an expert on Michael Jackson so I won’t be commenting on how accurate the movie is to real life. I just don’t think that Michael is a good movie when looking at it on its own, I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to someone who had never heard of him before. For what it’s worth, it had potential in the first third as it begins with Michael Jackson as a child when he was performing in the Jackson 5 alongside his brothers, which was managed by his father Joe Jackson. Here, we see glimpses of how Michael was raised and the abuse he suffered. They could’ve delved into some parts a little more, it certainly skimmed through his early life and jumped through notable events (relegating much of the Jacksons’ success through montages), but it’s the aspect of the movie that really had the most substance and I was still relatively open minded at this point. It begins to lose what little it had when it moves into Michael’s adult years as he starts having success as a solo performer separated from his family. At this point, the film readily jumps years from one key event to another, whether it be recreations of performances, filming music videos, and other successes, and it becomes something that you wouldn’t imagine a Michael Jackson film to be: boring.

The sanitizing of Michael Jackson certainly played a part in this problem, the movie really doesn’t want to portray any kind of flaw in him. Even the most whitewashing of music biopics leave a few flaws of its subjects behind to give the film something to work with. In Michael however, he’s portrayed as an angel who doesn’t do anything wrong, is just misunderstood and too precious for this world. It even seems reluctant to show him having struggles. While the film does actually show him going through some bad times, outside of everything involving Joe Jackson, it merely nods and acknowledges it before moving swiftly onto the next montage or musical performance. Examples of this include Jackson getting nose surgery, and him later being confronted with the fact that he might have to take drugs. The initial scenes do well to set up some drama and conflict, and most importantly, a chance to get to see a human side of him that we don’t usually get to see. However, the movie instantly forgets about it the moment the scene ends.

We don’t get a sense of who Michael Jackson is, despite multiple threads being right there to give some insight. Even his relationship with his family outside of his parents isn’t even touched upon because they are basically background extras in the movie. Particularly disappointing is the lack of his creative process being shown; as far as the movie is concerned, the music just comes to him instantly. One of the best scenes of the movie was when we get a glimpse of the behind the scenes of him making Beat It, especially with the dance choreography, just for the fact that it actually presents some insightful part of his process. Unfortunately, that’s about all we get. Michael is far more interested in recreating iconic moments of live performances and music videos, broken up with random facts from his Wikipedia page. This movie spans decades of Jackson’s life, readily jumping whole years, but by the end of this 2 hour and 10 minute movie, I didn’t get a sense of who he was beyond “incredibly talented musician who’s a child at heart (but insistent that he’s not a child anymore), who visits children at hospitals and loves Peter Pan”. It makes for a movie that feels largely on autopilot and on fast-forward, and it’s just not a very interesting or engaging experience. Michael Jackson had such an interesting life and career that you could probably make a movie from a single year of his life alone, so I guess it is some kind of an achievement to make a movie based on decades of his life feel dull. As some people are already aware, the third act which originally had the allegations against Jackson play a notable part was almost entirely reshot when it was discovered that it wasn’t legal to depict one of the accusers in the movie. Michael’s relationship with his father Joe was brought back into being the main focus for the final third instead. Aside from the obvious reasons, this change was for the better because despite the relationship between the two being a little underdeveloped, it’s the only substantial aspect that the film had going for it in order to give an ending that felt somewhat conclusive (despite finishing in the late 80s). Supposedly they are going to make a second movie, and honestly, I think it’s in their best interest for them to not do that.

Jaafar Jackson delivers a pretty good performance as Michael Jackson. He wasn’t given the best material to work with here, most of the time it just feels like he’s doing an impression of an uncle and only gets a few scenes to really dig into anything remotely deep. Nonetheless, he made the most of what he was given, and he particularly shines during the musical performance scenes. Juliano Krue Valdi also deserves a lot of credit as Jackson’s younger self in the film’s first third. There’s a number of good supporting actors including Nia Long. No one is bad here, but most of them feel like background characters. The exception is Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson, who felt like a one note caricature without much depth or nuance, no doubt an intentional choice and portrayal. Nonetheless, Domingo has such a strong on screen presence that he works fine enough for the movie.

For as mediocre and bland as Michael was, it could’ve been somewhat salvaged and worth it if the movie had a strong directing voice and style. Unfortunately, Antoine Fuqua’s directing can be best described as being competent at best. The general technical elements are fine, though considering that other biopics at least give it some kind of stylistic flair, it’s disappointing that everything feels so standard. One could say that the scenes of musical performances are where the film could shine most, but if anything, it’s where the directing flaws are most evident. The cinematography and editing for those scenes is best compared to a mediocre concert film, where the camera steadily captures Michael Jackson’s performance while frequently cutting to audience reactions to a frankly distracting degree. There’s nothing really special about how Fuqua presents Michael here, you might as well watch any recorded live performance of Michael Jackson and have a better experience. Jackson’s music is fantastic and it was amazing hearing it in the cinema, but of course the film doesn’t earn any points for this, so really the only good part about these scenes is that Jaafar Jackson plays these scenes amazingly.

Despite some good performances, Michael is an incredibly formulaic, blandly directed, and shockingly bland and dull music biopic. I can only recommend this if you just want to hear Michael Jackson’s music played in the cinema, and perhaps a decent impression of him, because that’s pretty much all you get here.