Film Review - Michael (2026)

Michael is the musical biopic about the late Michael Jackson and his own nephew Jafaar Jackson plays Michael in this movie which concerns his initial rise to fame as part of the Jackson Five all the way up to the release of the album Bad in 1988.

Michael was at the start of this year one of my most anticipated movies of the year primarily because of the strength of the first trailer and how much it had me thinking I was looking at remastered archival footage instead of dramatized recreations but as the year has gone on it began to fade from that list and I started anticipating Mortal Kombat II and Minions and Monsters a whole lot more plus musical biopics can be very hit and miss but would this be a thriller, thrilling time at the movies or would it be bad, be bad, be pretty pretty bad.

Well actually it was neither, its not a terrible movie to watch but its also a movie that dramatically and storytelling wise falls flat and when it all ends you sit there feeling “Is that It?” but before I delve more into that I want to mention the main positive I have and that is Jafaar Jackson who does a great job bringing his late uncle back to life with his vocals, his dance moves and his physical acting, Michael was a man who brought a sense of movement to his music and when you listened to it you wanted to move your body to it and Jafaar captures that very well.

I also loved the Billie Jean segment in this movie but there is where I want to start mentioning the negatives and sadly that has to start with the musical numbers, again they aren’t terrible but only during Billie Jean did I want to move my body and sing along in my cinema seat (respectfully of course) the Thriller recreation (one of the most iconic music videos of all time) fell flat due to its bad editing (and trying to hide who that clip’s now infamous director is) and the concert scenes after a while started to feel repetitive.

Not to mention that during 2 of the films songs I was wanting to sing the Weird Al Yankovic parodies of those songs instead which is not a good sign for a movie of this kind.

And then there’s the films overall storytelling which feels flat and emotionless, so much of the dramatic weight of this movie is centred on Michael’s relationship with this domineering father Joe played by Coleman Domingo and Domingo’s performance is so one note at times you can almost see the scenery being chewed in his mouth and it all felt like a waste of a great talent who rarely gives a bad performance and this is one of the rare times and that story of the son learning to defy his father so he can go his own way felt very predictable.

And when its all over you just sit there thinking “was that it?” because it all ends in a very anti-climatic way that doesn’t feel earned in any way and say what you want about Bohemian Rhapsody from 2018 (also produced by Graham King) at least that film earnt its Live Aid climax that had you leaving that film on a real high note and also this is now the second musical biopic he’s helped to produce that has resulted in a messy production and while I’m sure he’s a nice guy I can’t help but question his judgement given this has now happened twice.

First was not cracking the producers whip on Bryan Singer after the first time he allegedly went MIA during the filming of Bohemian Rhapsody to pull him into line (Singer was later fired from that production with only 2-2.5 weeks left on the schedule) and now it’s the well documented mess regarding the production of this movie where scenes were filmed but then had to be scrapped because of a situation involving MJ’s estate now that part isn’t entirely his fault but its also a situation that could’ve been avoided much earlier than it was.

And so that was Michael and it isn’t a bad movie but its also a flat one with hit and miss musical scenes, a anti-climatic ending and a predictable storyline that feels like a waste of a great talent, 1.5 out of 5.