What critics are saying about “Michael”, Antoine Fuqua's controversial biopic starring the King of Pop's nephew
What critics are saying about “Michael”, Antoine Fuqua's controversial biopic starring the King of Pop's nephew
Ryan ColemanWed, April 22, 2026 at 6:09 AM UTC
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Jaafar Jackson in 'Michael'Credit: Glen Wilson/LionsgateKey Points -
The first critics' reviews of Michael, Antoine Fuqua's new biopic of Michael Jackson, have arrived.
While many critics at least praised Jaafar Jackson's performance in the role of his iconic uncle, the vast majority of reviews slammed the film aesthetically, narratively, and in essence.
Michael costars Nia Long, Colman Domingo, and Miles Teller.
Michael Jackson once sang that "love never felt so good." But you know what feels even better? Positive criticism.
After months of scandal and speculation, Michael, the long-awaited Michael Jackson biopic from director Antoine Fuqua, finally arrives Friday. The first half of the two-part picture anyway.
Advance reviews are out for Michael part one, which stars the King of Pop's nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the title role, and features an impressive ensemble including Nia Long (as mom Katherine Jackson), Colman Domingo (as dad Joe), and Miles Teller (as Michael's longtime attorney, John Branca).
Put aside what you may have heard about film in its troubled path to the big screen, from Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed slamming the script as a "complete whitewash" of Jackson's complicated legacy, to his sister Janet abstaining from involvement in the film, and thus not appearing anywhere within its two-plus hour runtime. Instead, take in the good, the bad, and everything in between the critics saw fit to point out about Michael.
Nia Long in 'Michael'Credit: Glen Wilson/LionsgateThe Good
We can start with praise for Michael, because it's far, far more scarce than the critiques and complaints.
Even some of the most negative reviews praised Jaafar's performance as his larger-than-life uncle. For the Tribune News Service, Katie Walsh wrote that the film's producers are "extremely lucky to have Jaafar, who bears those Jackson looks, and conjures a physical embodiment of the King of Pop that is eerily, almost mathematically correct."
Alonso Duralde noted in The Film Verdict that whenever either Jaafar or Juliano Krue Valdi, who portrays young Jackson, "dons a familiar wardrobe and reenacts the real Michael’s dance moves, the film achieves a liveliness that’s otherwise missing." But unfortunately, "these sequences play like the only parts of this biopic that haven't been flattened into nothingness by a team of lawyers and publicists."
In one of the most positive reviews of the crop, The Detroit News' Adam Graham conceded that while the film may offer an "overly simplistic version" of Jackson's momentous life, "slick visual stylist" Fuqua found the film's "rhythm, and Jaafar Jackson gives it its pulsating heartbeat."
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The Bad
There's a lot of ground to cover here.
Critics did not, on the whole, care for Michael. Critiques range from aesthetic quibbles (Time Out's Phil de Semlyen blasted the film's "Thriller" sequence as "clunkily recreated"); to script-level issues (Screen's Tim Grierson highlighted the film's "strangely frictionless narrative," which "struggles to transcend genre cliches"); to problems with the film's very essence (IndieWire's Kate Erbland charged that, due to the Michael Jackson estate's close involvement, "the final film has been mostly stripped of any humanity, good and bad").
In his one-star review of the film, RogerEbert.com's Robert Daniels summed up a vast swath of the critical observations lodged elsewhere by writing, "Michael is hollow... The King of Pop’s potent songs will certainly paper over some of these technical deficiencies. But they can't obscure the fact that, unlike its subject, Michael isn't artistically unique, immediately entertaining, or boundary pushing. It's beyond safe and so unchallenging."
A scene from 'Michael,' which is out on FridayCredit: Glen Wilson/Lionsgate
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Critics and audiences becoming divided over their reception of films that entered theaters on a divisive note is a common-enough occurrence. It could happen here.
There is also the distinct possibility that audiences may like the film, even make it a hit, in spite of their issues with Michael. David Fear pointed to that potentiality in his humorous review of the film for Rolling Stone, promising viewers, "You will have your own OMG WTF moment of no return, your own personal crossing of the Rubicon, regarding Michael."
Michael arrives in theaters on April 24.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
