Michael Movie’s Biggest Issue Lets Jaafar Jackson Down

While Jaafar Jackson is giving a good performance in Michael, the movie’s script ultimately lets him down.

Michael is now playing in United States theaters. Released through Lionsgate and directed by Antoine Fuqua, the movie sees Jaafar Jackson — who is Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew — play the titular pop star. The cast of the movie also includes Colman Domingo as Joseph Jackson, Nia Long as Katherine Scruse-Jackson, Miles Teller as John Branca, and KeiLyn Durrel Jones as Bill Bray.

The synopsis for the movie reads, “Michael is the cinematic portrayal of the life and legacy of one of the most influential artists the world has ever known. The film tells the story of Michael Jackson’s life beyond the music, tracing his journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world. Highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career, the film gives audiences a front-row seat to Michael Jackson as never before. This is where his story begins.”

What’s the issue with the Michael movie?

Before we talk any further about Michael, we must first address the elephant in the room: This movie doesn’t go into any of the controversy that happened later on in Jackson’s life. The film ends in 1988, and it’s not addressing any of the allegations that came later on in his life. There may be legal reasons for that. There may be other forces at play. But, for one reason or another and whatever the case may be, this movie isn’t going to talk about any of it.

And there are other things that are left out of this movie, too, that people have an issue with; Janet Jackson, for example, isn’t included in this movie. But to talk about Michael, we have to talk about what the film actually gives us rather than the movie that some audience members might be creating in their minds.

That’s the big problem with Michael, though: The actual movie doesn’t give us that much. While Jaafar Jackson nails the performance aspect, the way the actual Michael character is written in here really isn’t all that interesting; we’re not saying anything about him we didn’t know already. We’re not reexamining his life from a different light. The whole movie pretty much just wants to tell you how great Michael Jackson was and how catchy his music is, and that’s it.

Sure, there’s an arc in that, throughout the course of this, Michael gets the confidence to stand up to his father, all while his stardom begins to rise. But it’s not a particularly interesting arc. It’s not a very well-written one. It’s all pretty surface-level, boilerplate kind of stuff that will go out of its way to avoid making any kind of point other than, ‘Michael Jackson, good music, good guy.’

Fans of his music? Yeah, they might like Michael a bit more than the average moviegoer just because this movie stops to play you all his biggest hits throughout this. And they’re good songs. This is a good-looking, good-sounding movie. But for those who want more than that, they may end up coming out of this disappointed with what we got.