“Hee-hee-hee”

I honestly had absolutely no clue what to expect with this movie. It has been one of my most anticipated films of this year ever since that amazing first trailer dropped, but I quickly became skeptical about it after hearing about all of the reshoots due to a part of the story being included that legally couldn’t be included. While I was skeptical, I was still pretty optimistic at the same time that Michael was going to be a pretty good, if not great, film. However, after seeing just how poorly received it’s been, mainly by the critics, that skepticism quickly turned into low expectations. I have to say that with all of that in mind, I was quite impressed by this film and think the critics are being quite harsh on it (at least in my opinion).

Just to get the obvious out of the way, Jaafar Jackson’s performance as his uncle is absolutely phenomenal and easily the highlight of the movie as a whole. I already predicted, just based on the trailers, that he would probably get nominated for an Oscar next year, and I still think that is a very high possibility despite the critical reception. I mean, he gets all of Michael Jackson’s mannerisms down to a tee: his voice, his looks, and most importantly, his voice. While the musical aspect of his portrayal was lip-synced, his actual voice used in general conversation was not, and it was so on point that it started to become uncanny. Additionally, just seeing the way he performed on stage was spectacular. What made this all the more impressive is that this was Jaafar Jackson’s first time ever acting.

The other standout performance-wise was definitely Colman Domingo. I haven’t really seen him in much, but I see now why he is such a household name at this point. For one, the prosthetics for him as Joe Jackson made him completely unrecognizable - I literally wouldn’t have known it was him if I hadn’t previously - but his acting was amazing as well. He essentially plays the antagonist of the story, an abusive father who basically puts Michael in a box and treats him as a thing for his own personal gain and success, and every moment he was on screen, especially with Michael, you felt the tension.

The second thing you’d obviously come for, and honestly probably the first, are the musical moments, and they absolutely deliver, no question. The standout for me was easily the adaptation of the musical short film, Thriller, which, and I’ll use this word again, was so accurate to my memory that it was uncanny. The choreography for not only Michael himself, but everyone else was just simply insane. The concert scenes are incredible as well, and get you just as pumped up and excited as you’d hope, which brings me to my next positive.

I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by this because of how good the editing was for the original trailer, but the editing for that definitely translated to the actual movie as well. The concert scenes are not only shot fantastically, but edited in such a way that elevates the already great music being played. On top of that, there are a countless number of music cues before individual scenes that are played at just the right moment, to where I honestly started to get goosebumps.

The final thing I’ll say here that was a positive for me was just seeing Michael Jackson’s story play out as a whole. I already knew a lot about him, I mean, I would have had to have lived under a rock for most of my life to not have, but there was still quite a bit I didn’t know either. The main thing I didn’t know about him was that one of his little quirks was his definitely childlike traits, particularly when it comes to his interests. Biggest of all, and I might sound dumb for this, I actually had no idea just how much he had a care for both animals and people in need.

What keeps Michael from being great is definitely his overall characterization just on a plain story level, though. He faces external conflicts throughout, the main one being his father, but other than that we never really get a deep look into him internally. He kind of just succeeds at literally everything he sets out to do from the get go, which, I don’t know, but I find it hard to believe that he didn’t at least have some substantial struggles with becoming as successful as he did. There are even hints at his want to become an all-time great, but that’s it, they are just hints and the story as a whole doesn’t really ever explore it all that much, which I found both disappointing and a massive missed opportunity.

As a whole though, I was definitely impressed and thoroughly entertained by this biopic. As a celebration of Michael Jackson, which is what this film is supposed to be, it definitely succeeds in my book. There seem to be plans to make a second movie, but I honestly think that where this movie ends is absolutely perfect and kind of haunting in a very subtle way if this was just a one and done thing.