Featuring more than ten of his legendary songs, the 127-minute movie directed by Antoine Fuqua had the heavy task of expressing the breadth and beauty of his story to generations born too late to benefit from it. To do this properly, who else than an actual member of the Jackson family to portray the King of Pop. His 29-year-old nephew Jaafar Jackson took possession of his uncle's dance moves and mindset, but sadly the production wasn’t as easy as 1,2,3.
In 2023, filming was delayed due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and only began the following year. It concluded after almost 3 months of work but even then it was far from over, because the entire third act had to be re-shot for legal reasons. The production was officially forbidden of showing any footage related to the child abuse allegations against the pop star, which changed the whole conclusion of the film and had a significant impact on the budget.
Another problem was the runtime of the film - a 4-hour first cut made the producer think of a two-part movie. But since the last delay it hasn’t been confirmed that this film will get a sequel, while it should certainly be the case to not disrespect the legacy of the artist. Even now that it’s released, the marketing campaign had some bad turns. Janet, Michael's youngest sister, asked to be removed from the narrative despite the desire of the director to involve all the Jackson family.
You just don't stop till you get enough watching him perform a song.
Jafaar turns out to be the greatest part of the film. His perpetual smile reminds us of the iconic one of his uncle's, and his dance moves would even make us forget that it is not the real King of Pop. You just don't stop till you get enough watching him perform a song. Second on screen time is his father Joseph, played by Colman Domingo who is barely recognisable with all his prosthetics.
Outside from acting, directing is walked over by the very present editing that spoils the music scenes; I think it definitely could have been more cinematic with less cuts. For the screenplay, knowing that initially one third of the film was about Michael's legal problems changes the interpretation of the remaining parts and I would argue the original version would have changed a lot for the whole passing of the film. I would argue that changing a significant part of his life may not be moral; it doesn't matter who’s wrong or right, it’s just reality.
However, regardless of the subjective value of the film, the similarities with other recent Hollywood biopics are undeniable. Bohemian Rhapsody is the first one that came to mind for me; the multiple Oscar-winning movie faced a lot of criticism for not being accurate to the real life of the artist and for dramatising events of his life for storytelling purposes. Here, it follows the same path. At the beginning, family relationships are complicated. The one day success strikes, it rockets up quickly, the singer develops a personality, he wants to realise his ideas, everyone thinks he's crazy but he couldn’t care less. All the other characters are put in the background apart from the main ones, then a health problem comes on without warning, but he gets over it with family, and finally he does a very big concert in London and the end.
But to see further from its relative value as a biopic in 2026, we need to remember we are talking about the idol of a whole century here, the man who made his fans pass out in concert. Yet he gets a biopic where the producers aren’t confident enough to officialise the second part and wait to see the box office result. Of course his legal problems complicate everything, but when it comes to Michael Jackson it is important to stay true to reality both morally and to respect his life's work.
But be careful who you love. 200 million dollars has been used for a movie that clearly lacks a “Part 1” in its title and an ending that had to go through a one year legal affair to be happy. It is sad to see that the King of Pop, the greatest, most recognisable music icon of the past century, is only entitled to a basic biopic recipe which is not even guaranteed to be complete, and could also be replaced by a Spotify playlist. It is now time to wait for the official announcement of the second movie but for now, beat it.