It has to be tough job making a movie like Michael. No matter what you do, you can’t win. Lean too far into Michael Jackson’s controversies and you end up disregarding his musical talents. Lean too far into his music and you come off too as if his alleged abuses don’t matter.
If you’re in it to see recreations of the singers’ songs, concerts and dance moves, you won’t be disappointed. These are the best parts of Antoine Fuqua’s film. But if you are hoping to see and learn more about Jackson’s controversies, you’ll leave the theater frustrated.
If I had to come up with only one word to describe the biopic it would be “sad”. The story isn’t all bleak, but Michael Jackson spent his whole life looking for happiness and I doubt that he ever found it.
The Big Bad Wolf
Michael is a true rags to riches story that begins not with the whole Jackson family living in a small, two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana. Right from the very beginning we see Michael performing as the lead singer of the Jackson 5 in their living room. They practiced relentlessly, but not for themselves. They practiced so that their egotistical father could live out his dream – getting out of that steel town.
That pretty much sets the tone for the entire movie. Everybody performs for Joe. The Jacksons are an incredibly talented family, but one has to wonder how much better off their lives would be if their father wasn’t so misguided.
The biopic has two sets of casts. The young Jackson boys and the older ones. The younger set include Judah Edwards (Tito), Jayden Lyndon Hunter (Marlon), Nathaniel Logan McIntyre (Jackie), Jayden Harville (Jermaine) and Juliano Valdi (Michael). The older ones include Rhyan Hill (Tito), Tre Horton (Marlon), Joseph David-Jones (Jackie), Jamal R. Henderson (Jermaine) and Jaafar Jackson, the son of Jermaine as Michael.
Where’s Janet?
Juliano’s and Jaafar’s performances as the troubled singer are amazing. For that matter, all of the “brothers are very good as well. Unfortunately, their characters aren’t fleshed out much. We don’t really learn much about them. As for Michael’s sisters, Jessica Sula plays La Toya, but where is Janet?
One of the more frustrating details about Michael is its pretending that Janet Jackson doesn’t exist. At all. Apparently, Janet chose not to get involved in with the film in any way, but the reason why isn’t completely clear. Not only does her character not appear in the movie, but she is never mentioned either. Characters are often omitted in movies when adapted from books, but this isn’t an adaptation of a fictional story.
Nia Long plays Katherine Jackson who sadly doesn’t get to do much more than say “Joseph!” when her husband says cutting remarks to his sons. However, Colman Domingo relishes the role of Joe Jackson as a force to be reckoned with. Unlike Katherine, who is always addressed as “mother”, Joe demanded that his kids refer to him as Joseph. He is a tyrant. The king of the castle who isn’t afraid to use his belt to keep his kids in line. And the rare times when he gives out compliments, he does so with the sincerity of a used car salesman.
If there is a hero to this story it is Bill Bray (KeiLyn Durrel Jones) who is Michael’s bodyguard and perhaps the boy’s only friend in the world. He is also one of the few people in the story who stands up against Joe.
Michael? Is That You?
As for Jaafar Jackson, he does an amazing job playing his uncle. His looks, voice, dance moves … everything about his performance resembles Michael Jackson to a T. Not only that, but you’d swear that the movie includes footage of the real performances, but everything from the album covers to production of Thriller, everything was lovingly recreated. All of the essential songs are here – “ABC”, “Ben”, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”, “Bad”, “Thriller” … This film was beautifully shot and with IMAX, it sounds great too. You really feel like you are in the audience of a Michael Jackson concert. It’s the rest of the movie that I have trouble with.
Sinner or Saint?
According to the film, Michael Jackson had no flaws whatsoever. The movie ends right after the final night of the Jackson’s Victory tour – long before the child abuse accusations but come out. Instead, Jackson is treated as a saint.
However, the movie does play him up as an eccentric who has a fascination with Peter Pan and a desire to never grow up. In one sad scene after Micheal goes on a shopping spree at a toy store, he asks his adult brothers if they want to play the game Twister with him. They turn him down and he resorts to teaching the game to Bubbles the chimp.
One thing that the movie got right was Michael’s frequent visits to children’s hospitals including the burn unit at the L.A. hospital that treated him after his own burn injury and that is impressive.
Just before the credits roll, the statement “His story continues” is shown suggesting that a sequel could be in the works. If so, that sort of makes sense since it seems that Michael’s life started to get out of control after he left the Jackson home and out from under his father’s shadow. Unlike his brothers, he never seemed to adjust to a normal life. But the movie ends on a high note with Michael standing up to his father, albeit many feet away while on stage.
The End?
There is a reason why the movie ends so abruptly with so much more of his life to go. In January 2025, it was reported that about a third of Michael had to be reshot. It was revealed that the movie could not legally depict Jordan Chandler, who alleged that Jackson had abused him when he was a child. This caused a one-year delay in releasing the film.
Overall, Michael is an entertaining movie, but it seems heavily edited. If a sequel does get made, it will be interesting to see just how honest it will be and how much the Jackson Estate is willing to share “the real Michael Jackson” with the world.
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