No spoiler warning for this post, because, well, it’s someone’s real life. I think we all know how Michael Jackson lived and died by this point.

I saw Michael on its opening weekend and once more while on an NYC trip. Reviewers and film critics seem pretty split about this movie, but I was always going to see it regardless to form my own opinion. So here’s what happens and what I think of it.

The film begins with Michael (Jaafar Jackson) about to go on stage in one of his Bad-era outfits; then we go back to the beginning with him and his brothers in 1966, rehearsing in their living room. Janet and Rebbie aren’t included in this film, so La Toya is the only sister present. I can only assume this is because the other two didn’t want to be involved in all this; I’ve seen in the past that Janet tends to be pretty protective over her brother’s legacy, so maybe she didn’t approve of their approach to this film.

We see Joe Jackson (Colman Domingo) push his boys to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse so that they can be the best performers, and Michael gets whipped and abused multiple times in his father’s relentless pursuit of perfection. The first half of the movie is very heavy on the performances and the music, which I didn’t love. I’ll be real: Though I like several of their songs, I’m not very interested in the Jackson 5 as a whole.

That’s also why the first half suffers plot-wise. You may say we don’t need a lot of exposition; we already know how Michael Jackson got his start, right? And we do, but one of the main objectives of a movie is to tell a story. When there’s another song being played every five minutes and not a whole lot of meaningful plot movement or character building going on between, it starts feeling more like a concert movie than a biopic.

So, yeah—the first half was okay but could’ve leaned way more into the storytelling, and I was ready to get into Michael’s solo journey.

Seeing Michael’s struggles with his desire to make his own music and get out from under his father’s thumb was a bit hard to watch, and I think anybody with controlling parents (especially ones you haven’t escaped yet) would understand why. This becomes especially true when you think that maybe this time Michael will stand up to Joe and fully develop himself, but it still doesn’t happen yet. His mother Katherine (Nia Long) is there to emotionally support him when she can, but she can’t protect him from Joe or do much to stand up for herself. After all, it’s a Christian household (specifically, they’re Jehovah’s Witnesses), and whatever the husband says goes…

Once Michael does find his freedom, he has a nice run with Thriller, including the Motown performance that permanently shoots him into superstardom. (Whenever I watch the original video, I think of the book My Life With Marvin Gaye and how Jan wrote that Marvin was so upset about being upstaged by Michael’s performance. But genuinely speaking: No one else who performed that night stood a chance.)

Then Michael gets reeled back in by his father for the Jackson 5 Victory tour and the Pepsi campaign, which leads to the infamous incident that changes the rest of his life. As tragic as it is, I enjoy this part of the film because it favors more of the acting and storytelling than just the performing. We get to sit with these people for a while and witness introspective moments and character development.

There’s a nice transition toward the end with Michael walking off after his announcement at the Victory tour, which goes full circle to the beginning with him about to go on for Bad. And speaking of these two tours—I truly loved these last few performances. Human Nature and Bad were out of this world, though I think I’ll always be partial to Human Nature. I wasn’t alive for the peak of Michael’s fame or most of his memorable moments, so this is the closest I’ll ever get to the experience of seeing him in concert. Jaafar Jackson ate this role down. The way he full-heartedly embodies his uncle’s voice, demeanor, behavior, and dancing seems like it should be impossible. At times, it truly does feel like I’m watching Michael himself perform.

(This is a personal gripe, but I wish they’d put more effort into the styling of the audience members during the tour scenes. They all look way too modern and don’t fit with the 1970s/1980s fashions that the extras in the rest of the movie embody.)

Colman Domingo also plays Joe Jackson convincingly. Joe is domineering and opportunistic, living the life he never got to have through his sons and especially through Michael. But I already knew that Colman has a talent for depicting fucked-up men after seeing him as Mister in The Color Purple.

This movie would’ve been a full four stars or higher for me if it had more plot and character interiority. The film shows that Katherine is important to Michael, but she doesn’t have much to do throughout the narrative and kind of fades into the background. Similarly, there’s very little interaction with La Toya. The women are practically relegated to minor roles, and it doesn’t help that we don’t have Rebbie and Janet here. We also don’t see much of Michael’s dynamics with his brothers. Knowing they weren’t getting along on the Victory tour, I would’ve appreciated seeing their difficulties with each other during that time—thereby humanizing the brothers instead of primarily depicting them as performers (and as Michael’s backup).

I know this movie had extensive reshoots in the latter half because of legal issues pertaining to the CSA allegations, but apparently there was much more left out than I thought. The heavy cutting does the movie a huge disservice, especially if it means that we ultimately got less emotional depth, and I can’t help but side-eye Michael’s estate. What exactly was their strategy when they approached filming, and why did they initially include one of the accusers when it was already established in his settlement that this couldn’t happen?

But they seem to have more traction than Prince’s estate. Meanwhile, I’m still waiting to see if the Super Deluxe Edition of Love Symbol teased in 2023 will ever be released…or if the Netflix documentary is forever doomed to rot in the Vault…💤