Critics say Antoine Fuqua's biopic is great when Jaafar Jackson is performing as his uncle, but there isn't much substance to the rest of the film.
The long-anticipated music biopic Michael arrives in theaters this Friday, but the first reviews are online today and are mixed in their appreciation. Jaafar Jackson stars as his eponymous uncle in the movie, which only follows the King of Pop's life until the end of the 1980s. As a celebration of Michael Jackson's music and star power, Antoine Fuqua's film reportedly delivers, but many audiences will likely have trouble with its generic and selective storytelling.
Here's what critics are saying about Michael:
If you're even remotely nostalgic for the time when his songs were ubiquitous on pop charts, at parties, and on dance floors worldwide, the movie will be a warm rush of transporting pleasure.
-- David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
If you're here for the music, the movement, and that larger-than-life energy that made him who he was, this absolutely delivers.
-- Patrick Beatty, See it or Skip It
Michael stands as an entertaining experience that fans are going to have a blast with.
-- Yasmine Kandil, Discussing Film
It's a solid movie that will captivate fans worldwide.
-- Allison Rose, FlickDirect
It succeeds where it should... Michael illuminates a moment in time that should be celebrated.
-- Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today
The primary performances, production design, and entertainment value are objectively good here... You leave the theater wanting to hit the dance floor.
-- Julian Roman, MovieWeb
Although the film's musical performances galvanize, director Antoine Fuqua reduces The King of Pop to a blandly inspirational cipher.
-- Tim Grierson, Screen International
Michael does the impossible: It makes the King of Pop boring.
-- Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies
Simply as a celebration of Jackson's songs and stagecraft, it's phenomenal... The music has never sounded louder or better.
The movie, in its rather familiar way, conducts the electricity of Michael Jackson.
-- Owen Gleiberman, Variety
From the casting to the costumes to the full-fledged concert performances, Michael lives up to the legendary status of its namesake.
-- Liz Declan, Screen Rant
It celebrates more than it questions, remembers more than it reveals.
-- Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
It's just feature-length publicity, and it plays like damage control.
-- William Bibbiani, The Wrap
It betrays its own subject, whose stated desire to creatively express himself honestly and without external restraints isn't echoed by this meticulously disingenuous affair.
-- Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
Michael is a masterclass in what a biopic should be... The movie will leave audiences feeling as though they truly know the legendary superstar.
What is most striking about the film is the intimate look into the man behind the music. He could be vulnerable, demanding, intimidated, isolated, professional, or caring depending on the situation.
The portrait here is of a damaged man, whose sharp professional instincts seemed at odds with his gentle demeanor.
By denying any contradictory views of its subject, Michael seems disconnected from reality -- a problem the massively famous and troubled Jackson would himself come to embody.
No matter where you come down on Jackson as a person, this film is entirely the opposite of what he was, both as an iconic performer and a controversial tabloid figure.
The surprise of Michael is how well it plays, and what an engrossing middle-of-the-road biopic it is.
The film leaves itself open to accusations of making Michael a saint, which will not sit well with the cancel crowd. If you are unwilling to separate the art from the artist, this will not be a movie for you.
For anyone hoping for a deeper, more daring exploration of Michael Jackson, it ultimately feels like a missed opportunity to push beyond the surface.
For lifelong fans who cherish the music, the movie delivers.
Fans especially are going to eat this up; it's built for them.
Michael is the film fans will line up for more than once, a chance to see this genius up close and in IMAX like never before.
-- Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Even longtime, diehard fans will be taken aback by the level of detail on display.
As someone who found comfort in Michael Jackson's art growing up, I was moved -- but I also wanted more honesty.
It's a film about how great Michael Jackson was and how great you are if you're still a fan.
Logan's narrative is conspicuously selective... [His] dialogue often feels overly scripted and predictable, leaning into cliché rather than complexity.
The story is completely hollow and lacking any intriguing conflict to make Jackson a compelling character.
-- Josh Parham, Next Best Picture
The screenplay is occasionally overly sanitized, with heavy-handed dialogue and an over-reliance on recreation rather than re-envisioning.
The one exception to [the] mind-numbing routine is "Beat It," which John Logan's screenplay turns into a genuine opportunity to explore Jackson's creative impetus, and the way he sees not only his immediate environment, but Black culture at large.
Unlike the at-times-cartoonish depiction of Elvis Presley in Elvis, for example, Michael offers viewers a deeper look at Michael Jackson's complex inner world in a narrative that could stand on its own, separate from the music.
It's basically an '80s-TV-movie version of the Michael Jackson story with sharper acting and snazzier photography.
Michael suffers from the same pitfalls as so many modern biopics, dutifully hitting all the genre clichés.
-- Derek Smith, Slant Magazine
Does this film do anything different from what we've seen done in just about every music biopic? No. This is a very safe movie.
In the panoply of biographical motion pictures, Michael occupies a space between The Babe Ruth Story, which claimed Babe Ruth cured diseases by hitting homers, and Back to Black, which argued that Amy Winehouse's family and record label were blameless for her ongoing, life-ending substance abuse.
It's one of the most vapid hagiographies that this subgenre has seen in quite some time.
If you zero in on what's standard about Michael, or what the movie leaves out, you may miss the compelling urgency of what it gets in: Michael Jackson's journey to become himself by freeing himself from the past.
If Michael has flaws, they are few and far between.
Jaafar Jackson, the son of MJ's brother Jermaine, is nothing short of remarkable... Watching him perform those iconic tracks was unexpectedly emotional for me. It didn't feel like imitation; it felt like memory.
The King of Pop is brilliantly portrayed by his nephew... Jafaar Jackson dazzles.
Jaafar Jackson as Michael is as close to resurrecting the King of Pop as a movie can get, and it's easy to forget that he isn't actually Michael Jackson.
The voice, the charisma, the dance moves, he has it down to a T. It really does seem like this is going to be a performance that is talked about all year long, and deservedly so.
[It's] what holds the movie together and gives it meaning... Does he ever nail the look, the voice, the electrostatic moves -- and, more than that, the mixture of delicacy and steel that made Michael who he was.
The young actor pulls off an uncanny recreation of Michael's dance skills... The unique combination of fluidity and snappy angularity that helped make him one of the all-time great stage entertainers.
The stretches of the film that are most captivating are almost solely due to Jaafar's ability to embody both Michael's timid awkwardness off stage and his magnetic exuberance on stage.
Colman Domingo shines as the best member of the cast with his ability to infuse nuance in his characterization.
Colman Domingo brings a commanding presence... No doubt Domingo will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Domingo's fiery but one-note performance quickly grows tiresome.
Domingo's Joe... becomes buffoonishly one-dimensional -- practically moustache-twirling.
It's shot by Dion Beebe with visual electricity in the performance sequences.
The visual effects, primarily used to replicate audiences during massive concert sequences, are often unrefined.
One of the few elements of Michael that fully takes audiences out of the story is Bubbles' CGI design, which looks distractingly out of place in a movie that is otherwise so visually stunning.
Too bad the blatant CGI versions of a llama, giraffe, python and yes, Bubbles the chimp, are so cringeworthy that you forget to have empathy for Jackson, the lonely man-boy.
Michael may be the first biopic that's been set up to be a franchise. Normally, I'd be cynical about that. But if the filmmakers choose to continue Michael Jackson's story, it will not be just a brand extension but an opportunity: to maybe get into that dark side after all.
If I didn't know any better, based on this movie, I'd assume Michael Jackson died shortly after Bad was released. And I suspect this movie would be just fine with people thinking that's what happened.
-- Mike Ryan, The Hard Pass
Whether the story really continues depends I suppose on whether the Jacksons want to keep cashing in, even if it gets unsavory.
This climactic promise of the story potentially continuing feels like a threat.
Michael opens in theaters on April 24, 2026.
