Look, when someone announced there was going to be a Michael Jackson biopic, the collective internet groan was audible from space. We've been here before. We remember Flex Alexander attempting to channel the King of Pop and producing something closer to a fever dream. The bar was, let's say, subterranean.
So color us cautiously surprised that Michael is actually... pretty entertaining?
The casting gamble that actually paid off
The masterstroke here is obvious from the first trailer: casting Jaafar Jackson, MJ's actual nephew, in the lead role. This isn't just stunt casting. According to a review from Refinery29, the physical resemblance and shared swagger between the two is genuinely uncanny - the kind of thing you can't manufacture in a casting room, only inherit through DNA.
But the film doesn't rest solely on Jaafar's cheekbones. Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson and Nia Long as Katherine Jackson reportedly deliver performances strong enough to elevate the whole production. Domingo in particular is one of those actors who makes everything around him better just by existing in the scene, so that tracks.
Entertaining, yes. Complete? Not so much
Here's where things get complicated - and where any honest review has to pump the brakes a little. The Refinery29 review describes the film as an "incomplete portrait," which is the kind of diplomatic phrasing that essentially means the movie is telling you the parts of the story it wants to tell and quietly leaving the rest on the cutting room floor.
And honestly? That's the elephant in the room that no amount of moonwalking can distract from. Michael Jackson's legacy is enormous, complicated, and deeply contested. A film that cherry-picks the highlights while glossing over the darker chapters isn't really a portrait - it's a very expensive, very stylish highlight reel.
Should you watch it?
If you're going in for the spectacle - the music, the moves, the sheer theatrical energy of what MJ meant to pop culture - then yes, Michael apparently delivers that in spades. Jaafar Jackson's performance alone sounds worth the price of admission for anyone who grew up with Thriller playing on a loop.
Just don't go in expecting a documentary. This is Hollywood doing what Hollywood does best: making something dazzling, emotionally resonant, and carefully curated. Think of it as the authorized version of a very unauthorized life.
Which, come to think of it, might be the most Michael Jackson thing about the whole project.
