In recent years, biopics about the lives of famous musicians have become as common as superhero films. Like that genre, many music biopics have followed a very strict, played-out formula. Some have managed to escape the trappings of the genre, such as “Rocketman” and “Better Man”, while others have gone along with the rest of the herd, such as “Bob Marley: One Love.” Unfortunately, “Michael” falls into the latter group.
The film’s script by John Logan (“Gladiator”, “Rango”) is terrible. It is generic beyond belief. Almost every scene is filled to the brim with clichés and dialogue I have seen and heard in a dozen other biopics. Beyond simply sidestepping the mountain of allegations against him by ending the film in 1988, the film goes a step further and portrays Michael Jackson as a perfect saint who never had any flaws whatsoever. He is repeatedly shown visiting kids in hospitals and being kind to children, and the movie lays out a very on-the-nose comparison to Peter Pan as someone who cannot grow up. I understand that many MJ fans do not want to think about the bad things he did, but to not address his flaws at all, and rather offer such a bland, uncritical look at his life, is simply cowardly, though not wholly surprising given the extensive involvement of the Michael Jackson Estate in the production of the film
The filmmaking from director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”, “The Equalizer”) that brought the script to life is mostly mediocre. The visual style is uninteresting and does not reflect the film’s exorbitant, nearly $200 million budget. The makeup used to portray Jackson’s father, Joseph Jackson, is ghastly and distracting for every frame it is on screen.
It reminded me of Tim Curry’s look in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. The film’s saving grace is, of course, the music. Michael Jackson’s songs are undeniably fantastic, and it was a joy to hear them with cinema-quality sound.
The performances from the cast are a mixed bag. There are only really two performances worth mentioning, seeing as the film completely sidelines most of the Jackson family and gives the other characters little to do. Jaafar Jackson, the actual nephew of Michael Jackson, makes his film debut here in the titular role. The visual similarity between him and his uncle is uncanny, and he does manage to nail his voice and physicality. The other notable performance is Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”) as Joseph Jackson. I usually adore Domingo in everything he is in, but sadly his performance here is, like many things in this film, generic and cliché. The script gives him one note to play, and that note becomes pretty tiring by the end of the movie.
Regardless of “Michael’s” many flaws as a film, I know it is going to be a box office success and that fans of Jackson will adore it. However, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little depressed that such a low-effort, formulaic film is likely going to be one of the biggest films of the year. Audiences deserve interesting movies about these figures in pop culture, but sadly “Michael” is not that.