Michael – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on the 22nd of April 2026
Universal presents a film by Antoine Fuqua
Written by John Logan
Produced by Graham King, John Branca, and John McClain
Starring Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Juliano Valdi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, Mike Myers, Miles Teller, and Colman Domingo
Cinematography Dion Beebe
Edited by John Ottman, Harry Yoon, Conrad Buff IV, and Tom Cross
Music by Lior Rosner
Rating: PG
Running Time: 127 minutes
Release Date: the 23rd of April 2026
The King of Pop needs no introduction. Ever since 2019, producer Graham King wanted to be starting something and secured the rights to make a film about Michael Jackson. As for the fans, they have been demanding it and have not stopped until they got enough. Now we have Michael, the latest film from journeyman filmmaker Antoine Fuqua. He is best known for directing Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001) and the Equalizer films.
After a two-year search for Michael, the filmmakers chose Jaafar Jackson, the nephew of the King himself, to play the titular role. With full approval from the Jackson estate, the film charts Michael’s ascension to fame, starting from the Jackson 5’s rise, followed by his global stardom, and the end of the Victory Tour, where he sang Bad alongside his brothers. Therein lies the rub.
All the musical biopics in recent years, including Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), have one thing in common: approval from the family/talent estate. It is hard imagining a Michael Jackson film exploring the controversies of his life, including accusations of child abuse. Without those events, can one expect a musical biopic that humanises him without becoming a hagiography?
On the plus side, Jaafar Jackson (and Juliano Krue Valdi as the young Michael) does a decent job in embodying his uncle. His best moments include conveying quiet contemplation through his eyes over his father’s looming shadow.
The scenes he shares with his mother Katherine (an underused yet effective Nia Long) and development of the Thriller music video are strong. His physical prowess comes to fruition. Colman Domingo also impresses as the family patriarch Joseph Jackson who instils palpable menace. The relationship between Joseph and Michael becomes adversarial through parental dominance.
The rest of the film is a banal, meretricious, and pandering piece of work that fails to transcend music biopic trappings or provide a compelling argument for its subject. Ever since the musical biopic parody Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), the musical biopic formula has faced massive scrutiny.
From the very first scene, John Logan’s shallow, formulaic script does this formula no favours. Important characters like Janet Jackson are removed, the creative process behind the masterful songs and dances is non-existent, and the conflicts feel manufactured because the characters compare more to facsimiles than three-dimensional beings.
There are no hints of the sadness and accusations that would overwhelm the later stages of Michael’s life. This is nothing but a squeaky-clean hagiographic portrayal so sterilised one can smell the disinfectant permeating from the screen.
Meanwhile, Fuqua’s filmmaking bears no subtlety or introspection toward its characters or drama. The film does not present a true reflection of its subject or a compelling look into the persona of its subject, but an exclamation that Michael Jackson still has fans.
Michael sticks with the musical biopic formula by immediately showcasing the songs without rhyme or reason, except Thriller. Even the concert scenes (lensed by cinematographer Dion Beebe) feel oddly claustrophobic and fails to convey the scale and magnitude of the concert cacophony. The editing is credited to four people, including Harry Yoon, John Ottman, Conrad Buff IV, and Tom Cross. Despite the latter three being Oscar winners, they cannot save the film from tripping over itself while moonwalking.
Overall, Michael is a forgettable musical biopic that flagrantly follows a formula while flat-out ignoring the humanity that made its subject a star and a complicated figure. In the end, it is all smooth and no criminal.
Summary: A forgettable musical biopic that flagrantly follows a formula while flat-out ignoring the humanity that made its subject a star and a complicated figure. It is all smooth and no criminal.
2
Bland
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