REEL | Jaafar Jackson Transforms into the King of Pop – 'Michael'

"I just have all these songs in my head."

Lionsgate / Cineplex Pictures

From the same producer (Graham King) and filmed in a similar vein as the wildly successful but much deservedly critically maligned Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody comes the ill-advised Michael, the estate-authorized biographical musical drama based on the life of the controversial "King of Pop," superstar Michael Jackson. He's portrayed impressively by his actual nephew, Jaafar Jackson (son of Jermaine, also an executive producer alongside his other living brothers), with the adorable Juliano Krue Valdi playing the younger MJ, and directed by journeyman filmmaker Antoine Fuqua.

Framed as a meteoric rise without the fall part, talented veteran actors Colman Domingo and Nia Long cartoonishly portray the notoriously prickly (and highly abusive) patriarch, Joe Jackson, and saintly mother Katherine. In an obvious bit of favoured casting, a moptopped Miles Teller, the only A-list actor in the cast, inexplicably plays Michael's longtime entertainment lawyer and co-executor of his estate, producer John Branca, who curiously has a minor but signifcant role—noticeably, several Jackson siblings barely appear or not at all, including Janet Jackson—and shoehorned hero mini-arc as the pop star's savior fixer for no reason other than for clear vanity purposes.

Much has been made of the production troubles, legally necessary reshoots, and an entirely reworked third act after Jackson's lawyers realized a clause in a previous child sexual abuse settlement prevented them from depicting any part of a crucial lawsuit on screen, despite completing its filming. Seasoned playwright/screenwriter John Logan's extremely basic script runs through The Jackson 5's humble origins in Gary, Indiana, before Michael broke out from the Motown family band and defiantly became the biggest solo act in music history, much to Joe's chagrin.

Fuqua ably stitches the film together as a series of glossy montages, iconic music video recreations, and superb live performances with little dramatic weight despite Jaafar's committed performance as a talented singer and dancer. It's ultimately a crowd-pleasing but thin portrait of the Kind of Pop's weird, sad, and lonely existence as a seemingly angelic kid who never grew up before the strangeness of his Neverland activities. His selectively soft-spoken characterization is boring and uninteresting, with no complexity to his unusual upbringing or rise to stardom. He makes for a flat protagonist despite leading a wild and complicated journey to fame.

Michael superficially glides through the highlights and sanitized lows of the first half of Jackson's eccentric rags-to-riches life story. Evidently, it's promised that "His story continues," in what manner is yet to be known, with an abrupt ending during his solo Bad World Tour in 1989. Still, his music and dancing are undeniable.


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