A Film for Jackson Fans, Michael (2026) | Film Review

I think RT critics watched this film with their eyes shut and ear plugs in. I want to give some context before my review. I took my mum with me to watch this film, she is a life long fan and she’s seen Michael live in concert in 1988, the year this film ends. I wanted the perspective of myself, someone who loves his music and someone who worships his career and let me tell you she sobbed from beginning to end. This alone tells me why they made this film, for the fans. Music holds emotion, music holds memory and I think this film does a beautiful job at recreating the feeling his music had for people. 

Are musical biopics a little overdone? Sure. Can musical biopics be a little void of narrative and depth? Most definitely but do musical biopics blend the relationship between music and movies into basically a two hour long music video that gets your toe tapping and head bobbing. Hell yeah. As someone who adores the emotional impact of music in cinema, I have always been fond of a musical biopic and although we have been drowned with a sea of them recently I still find myself having an unapologetically good time in the theatre. Although I do wish I went to a full screen for this film, I’m sure it was an experience in itself. 

This movie gives us part 1 of Michael’s life, his early life, career and relationship with his family until the ‘Bad’ tour in the late 1980’s. Depending on the success of part 1, we will be getting a part 2, which I hope will delve deeper into the psyche and personal life of Michael. The glaring problem with this film is it feels safe, it is a surface level attempt at exploring Michael’s life and career. We get moments of emotional turmoil and heartache  but the majority of this feature relies on his incredible music. The first hour was exploring Michael’s childhood and the beginning of the Jackson 5, it was slow paced and took its time building momentum. The relationship with his father was established early, Colman Domingo was superb in this role but it was strained at times. After the first hour the film found its footing once Michael decided to go solo. 

Let’s take a moment to appreciate Jaafar Jackson’s performance. He resurrected Michael Jackson onto the screen. The voice, the mannerisms, everything felt like a passionate portrayal of his late uncle. ‘Michael’ (2026) was able to recreated some of his most iconic musical moments, a particular favourite was the Thriller music video, that whole sequence took my breath away, as a kid I watched that music video hundreds of times and I still do now. 

Michael Jackson is a public figure we know a lot about and after this film, I didn’t really learn anything new. That was my primary issue with this biopic, it was light in context, it brushed past the life of Michael Jackson rather than taking a deeper look but I assume that was never their intention. 

In terms of direction, it was very simple, the film had little style or impact in that department and it played it safe. 

‘Michael’ is a crowd pleasure movie, a film for the fans, a cinematic experience that takes you into one of his concerts but ultimately the film lacked in depth. Although, most biopics do rely on the music. I can see the flaws in this films structure but does that mean I didn’t have fun in the cinema, hell no. Hearing that music accompanied by the dancing and costumes was special on the big screen. This is a performance led story, without Jaafar this could have been an incredible failure for me but his performance was utterly immersive and beyond fascinating to watch unfold. Musical biopics aren’t for everyone but personally, I love to watch a 2 hour long music video, I am a sucker for a musical biopic. 

Probe Points: ★★★