“Michael” is the estate-produced first slice of a promised two-part biopic about Michael Jackson, and it mostly plays like a greatest-hits reel with a polished sheen. The film is a tidy family project that prefers nostalgia over messy truth, leaning on familiar songs and spectacle to do most of the heavy lifting. Jaafar Jackson steps into the role with energy, but the picture often feels like a promotional piece for an already priceless catalog rather than a probing film.
This is very much a family affair: the Michael Jackson estate produced the movie and his siblings are listed as executive producers, minus Janet Jackson — due to pre-existing drama with the estate — she doesn’t even appear in the film! Jaafar Jackson, son of Jermaine, was cast to play the “Man in the Mirror” himself, which keeps the project tightly inside the family circle. That closeness shows on screen as both a strength and a limit.
They didn’t so much make a movie as assemble an elegant showcase for Michael’s music and memories. Scenes glide from one iconic moment to the next without digging into the hard corners that made his life complicated and newsworthy. When a film functions chiefly as a highlight reel, the real drama gets trimmed to fit a neat runtime.
‘LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY’ REVIEW: A GRUESOME REIMAGINING OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD MONSTER The origin chapter opens in 1966 in the Jackson living room in Gary, Indiana, and it sets the tone with a lot of warmth and very little grit. Young Michael and his brothers obey a strict, sometimes harsh father figure who is referred to as “Joseph,” and the script gives us the line, “In this life, you’re either a winner or a loser.” That maxim becomes a shorthand for the whole movie’s tidy moral architecture.
The film moves through a hyper-sanitized timeline that checks off every cultural moment you expect: Jackson 5 hits like “ABC” and “I’ll Be There,” and solo classics including “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Beat It” and “Billie Jean.” We see nods to Peter Pan and Neverland, a CGI Bubbles, the “Thriller” shoot, and the Pepsi accident where his hair caught fire. Those beats deliver the hits, but they rarely invite audience discomfort or complexity.
‘LORNE’ REVIEW: THE MYSTERIOUS MAD GENIUS BEHIND ‘SNL’ TAKES CENTER STAGE IN LAUGH-OUT-LOUD DOCUMENTARY Jaafar Jackson makes a solid, watchable big-screen debut as his uncle, capturing the speaking voice and nailing the moves. His portrayal leans heavily on mimicry, though, and the film does little to force him into deeper emotional territory. The result is a credible impersonation more than an act of dramatic transformation.
One recurring frustration is how the movie borrows the original recordings and essentially has the performer lip-sync to them, a tactic that robbed other music biopics of a certain rawness. There are industry echoes here — producer overlap with previous jukebox films is hard to ignore — and while some tracks reportedly blend Jaafar’s voice with Michael’s, that seam is designed to be invisible. For many viewers the musical illusion will be seamless, but that creative shortcut drains some cinematic risk.
‘PROJECT HAIL MARY’ REVIEW: RYAN GOSLING AND AN ALIEN ATTEMPT TO SAVE THE PLANET IN FUN SPACE ADVENTURE The film steers well clear of the most controversial terrain in part one, stopping its timeline around the 1988 “Bad” tour and skimming rather than confronting allegations and complications. Reports say the production even rewrote elements to avoid certain dark episodes, including removing the 1993 sexual abuse allegations from part one. That editorial choice leaves the biopic feeling curated for legacy preservation instead of investigation.
Astonishingly, a roster of A-list talent signed on: direction by Antoine Fuqua, a screenplay credit from John Logan, performances from Colman Domingo, Miles Teller, Nia Long and Mike Myers, and top-tier makeup and production design. Even with that level of craft, the movie rarely sustains a scene without sliding into another well-placed hit song aimed at driving streaming and catalog sales. The business savvy behind the project is obvious and unapologetic.
There are better models for music biopics that take emotional chances, like the quieter inventiveness of “Rocketman,” where an actor’s vocal commitment helped sell a surreal, risky portrait. “Michael” opts for crowd-pleasing certainty instead, and while superfans will find the film loaded with treasures, the wider promise of a revealing cinematic study remains unfulfilled. The result is glossy, guarded and engineered to refresh a legend rather than unpack him.
“Michael” is rated PG-13 for some thematic material, language, and smoking. Running time: 2 hours, 7 minutes. In theaters now.
