{"id":597911,"date":"2026-04-21T16:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/597911\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:52:11","slug":"what-the-reviews-are-saying-about-michael-jackson-biopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/597911\/","title":{"rendered":"What The Reviews Are Saying About Michael Jackson Biopic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe critics are weighing in on the big-budget Michael<\/a> Jackson biopic Michael, which releases globally this weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan, the movie covers the Jackson 5 period in the early \u201960s through to the iconic singer\u2019s early solo career. The \u201cKing of Pop\u201d is played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson in his film debut with support from Nia Long, Laura Harrier, Miles Teller, Colman Domingo and more.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the film is seemingly on course to do some strong box office and can call on a huge built-in fan base, the Lionsgate<\/a> musical is encountering some choppy critical reaction, at least according to the early returns. The film is currently running at 27% from 48 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. <\/p>\n

\n\tDeadline\u2019s Pete Hammond had one of the more positive responses to the film, writing: \u201cThe iconic songs you hear from \u201cBillie Jean\u201d to \u201cBeat It\u201d to \u201cThriller\u201d to \u201cBen\u201d are all vintage MJ, gloriously remastered and superbly lip-synched by Jaafar and\u00a0Juliano Valdi<\/a>, who plays the younger Michael. Jaafar\u2019s casting might have seemed a bit too all in the family, but the fact that he doesn\u2019t do his own singing didn\u2019t bother me, because this guy channels Uncle Michael in uncanny ways and simply sells this performance with all the right dance moves and sharp dramatic talent to make us believe\u00a0Michael Jackson<\/a>\u00a0is once again with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Michael Jackson Biopic \u2018Michael\u2019 Sets Early Screenings Two Days Before Wide Release<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tJaafar Jackson \u201cdazzles\u201d in the \u201cfeel-good\u201d biopic, which will be \u201ceaten up by fans\u201d, Hammond added.<\/p>\n

\n\tUSA Today was also in favour, giving it three stars out of four, and heralding a \u201cnew star in Jaafar Jackson\u201d: \u201cThe film reminds the generations who witnessed Jackson\u2019s ascension in real time of the extent of his singularity and educates younger audiences about the magnitude of his talent and scope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tScreenRant was also positive, calling the film \u201cmasterful\u201d, while there were middling notices in Variety and THR. The former calls it \u201ceffective\u201d, while the latter calls it \u201csanitized but more soulful than you might expect\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tMany others weren\u2019t so upbeat. Roger Ebert gave the movie one star, positing of the family\u2019s involvement in the project: \u201cIn every cloying moment, you can notice their fingerprints all over this plastic jukebox picture. \u201cMichael\u201d has already caused many to question what\u2019s missing: Janet Jackson (who indeed doesn\u2019t exist in this \u201cuniverse\u201d) and any reference to the singer\u2019s legal troubles (though that bankrupted moral and narratively corwardly positioning by Fuqua certainly doesn\u2019t help either). But the absence of those elements isn\u2019t what breaks this insipid biopic. It\u2019s the lack of any complex interest in Michael himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Michael Jackson Movie \u2018Michael\u2019 Trailer Is Startin\u2019 Somethin\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe BBC was also damning about the film, giving it one star, and describing it as \u201ca bland and barely competent daytime TV movie\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\tIGN calls the film \u201creally, really bad\u201d: \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing to note just how short the movie falls of the genre\u2019s already low expectations. In fact, it does the one thing no production should be able to. It makes Michael Jackson \u2014 the King of Pop and one of the most controversial, electric, groundbreaking figures of the 20th century \u2014 utterly boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndiewire calls the film \u201cGlossy, sanitized, and surprisingly dull\u201d, while Empire gives the film two stars out of five: \u201cAcross this two-hour-plus runtime, there was apparently no room to mention Jackson\u2019s controversies. Instead, it\u2019s a deeply generic music biopic, the kind that would make even <\/a>Dewey Cox\u00a0raise his eyebrows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Michael\u2019 Cast: Who\u2019s Who In The Michael Jackson Biopic<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe Guardian also gave the film two stars out of five, writing: \u201cRammed with every music-movie cliche, an almost mute supporting cast and a Michael who only produces endless smiley blandness, this is a frustratingly shallow film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Financial Times calls it a \u201cstilted waxwork of a movie\u201d, while The Independent describes it as \u201ca ghoulish, soulless cash grab\u201d. The Telegraph also gives it two out of five, calling it a \u201cskin-tingling whitewash,\u201d while Slash Film gives it 5\/10: \u201cMichael is a mere cotton candy machine of a movie.\u00a0At some point, we need to face the hard stuff,\u201d it says. <\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 25 Music Biopics About Whitney, Elvis, Tina, Elton, Queen & More, Plus Where To Stream Them<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The critics are weighing in on the big-budget Michael Jackson biopic Michael, which releases globally this weekend. Directed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,14968,27354,27355,216,37863],"class_list":{"0":"post-597911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-lionsgate","10":"tag-michael","11":"tag-michael-jackson","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-what-the-critics-are-saying"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}