More of a celebration than a biopic, and if you’re a fan of the legendary Michael Joseph Jackson then you’d be hard pressed to not find this movie entertaining, if you’re not a fan of MJ, I question your choices for watching media you’re not interested in.
Jaafar Jackson's performance alone is worth the price of admission. What I don’t want to get lost in the shuffle of great performances is Juliano Valdi’s performance of young Michael. He absolutely owns the first 20 minutes of this film and since his performance is such a minute part of the film, I feel like he doesn’t get the flowers he deserves, but he sets the tone and tee’s up Jaafar’s arc. Still, this movie is absolutely NOTHING without Jaafar’s performance, for me, that alone gives this movie my high rating. The tall task of embodying an icon can be daunting, and you throw in the fact that that’s your uncle and that adds the weight of legacy, and JJ takes this all these obstacles and moon walks all over them. I don’t know how he did it, but he channeled his uncle and spiritually summoned him. I don’t know if Jaafar earns a ton of awards consideration, but man he has earned the respect of many in his freaking acting debut!
Besides Colman Domingo as Joseph, the rest of the cast is just ok. They don’t get a lot of screen time and a lot of my criticism that surrounds the movie is the lack of depth into their characters and Michael’s relationship to them, but this movie is called Michael. I did not tune in for perfect screenplay and emotional storytelling, I wanted a celebration for the King of Pop and that is smartly the main focus here. I say smartly because I think you’d lose a lot of the casual movie goers if you find out through word of mouth that his music is not the focus.
Honestly, all the criticisms you’ll read or hear about (look at the Rotten Tomatoes score) it’s mostly going to be true. The pacing is inconsistent, it will jump from event to event with no lead up and then stay in pockets of the story for either too long or not long enough. Michael’s relationships are not flushed out besides with his dad, you could have honestly called this movie “Michael V Joseph” and it would have made sense due to the screentime Joe gets. My biggest thing is that they only have one instance of showing the musical and choreographic genius that Michael was, since we’re only focusing on the greatest hits, I would have loved to have lived in those moments a little longer of him generating beats or even learning the moon walk. But the entertainment value here just outweighs all of that to me. Hearing his music in a theater is like getting shocked by lightning, it really feels justified to be on the big screen as supposed to a direct to streaming movie. You’re not getting the allegations or criticisms on his life here, and if you want that then there a ton of documentaries out there.
Since this movie had a lot of MJ’s estate involved, you’re not going to get a hardened look at him, that might turn off a lot of people and that’s more than fair. Michael Jackson was probably the most famous person in the solar system from the 80’s to his death. When you attain that kind of fame, your fall is large no matter the blind support you have. This movie was designed for the Michael Jackson fans by the Michael Jackson estate, and I feel like that’s the only bit of information you need to decide to watch or not.
Honestly, whatever your opinion on Michael Jackson is, that will probably be how you feel about this movie. This will probably cement how you feel about him, good or bad. For me, this does cement for me that he is the King, and if there is a sequel, I’ll be first in line for those tickets as well.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Add comment
Comments