This past week has seen the wide release of the long-awaited Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, and as one may expect, it’s a film which appears to have swiftly divided critics.
First teased back in 2019, the film wasn’t officially announced until 2022, with Antoine Fuqua revealed as director the following year, and Jackson’s nephew – Jaafar Jackson – cast as the eponymous superstar.
Of course, questions soon arose as to how one could accurately and faithfully depict the life of The King Of Pop. After all, Jackson packed more into his 50 years than most performers could in 100 years, so the question of how much content would be included was floated.
So too was the topic of the controversial aspects of Jackson’s life brought into the mix, including the allegations of child sexual abuse that were brought against him during his lifetime.
For the former topic, that was one which ultimately necessitated a last-minute change.
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As Variety reported earlier this month, the film was supposed to begin with a focus on Jackson as he navigated life in the midst of the 1993 allegations of child molestation, with the majority of the film’s third act set to focus on the scandal.
However, lawyers for Jackson’s estate (which also served as a producer on the film) realised there was a clause in the settlement between Jackson and his accuser, Jordan Chandler, which forbade any mention of him in the film.
As a result, a new ending was shot last year at the cost of an additional US$10-15 million.
The final product now captures just over half of Jackson’s life, focusing on his early years, his debut as a member of the Jackson 5, his burgeoning solo career, massive success, and ultimately ending in the midst of his Bad Tour in 1988.
Following the film’s premiere in Berlin earlier this month, the film this week receives its wider release, but already the reviews are in, and for the most part, they’ve been largely negative.
Currently, Michael sits at an unenviable 36% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, with critics largely praising Jaafar Jackson’s role in portraying his uncle, but labelling the film itself shallow and lacking in wider substance.
While the likes of Dionar Hidalgo described the film as more of an exercise in PR than cinema, the Rotten Tomatoes’ site consensus notes “this musical biopic mostly plays like a ‘greatest hits’ album that could've benefitted from including liner notes to give actual insight into the icon.”
Likewise, some critics have since also pointed to the fact that the absence of any mention of the sexual abuse allegations made against Jackson are a jarring omission, with critic Kate Erbland stating that “the final film has been mostly stripped of any humanity, good and bad” as a result.
While the film strips away the controversy, others have pointed out the fact that it also removes a sense of humanity from Jackson himself, with no mention of the abuse the singer suffered at the hands of his father, and how his own childhood was stripped away as a result of his being pushed into the world of show business.
However, the praise that the film has attracted has largely been centred around Jaafar’s performance, with USA Today stating he went above and beyond in his preparation for the role.
“Jaafar may share his late uncle’s megawatt smile, lithe frame and Bambi eyelashes,” they write. “But his liquid dance moves – highlighted as he teaches gang members the footwork in the Beat It video − and soft-spoken cadence are studied to perfection. This is not about nepotism.”
Despite divided opinions, as one may expect, the film’s premature ending results in – as Double J put it – “the laziest sequel set-up in recent memory.”
So, while it seems that there will indeed be a sequel, it raises a handful of new questions. How will Jackson’s continued rise be tackled? Will the latter batch of allegations against Jackson receive an airing? Will there be a focus on the shift in public perception these allegations caused?
Will it faithfully (and respectfully) cover his premature passing in 2009? Will it focus on the legacy left in the wake of his death?
And most importantly, will a completed biopic that covers the remainder of the pop icon’s life result in a retrospective re-evaluation for this film? Time will tell, but currently, opinions are divided as to whether Michael is a thriller or if it’s just plain bad.
