Michael

Michael Jackson, probably the biggest music star of all-time, and certainly the biggest without a Hollywood biopic, now has the mandatory "cinematic event" in IMAX to take the crown from Bohemian Rhapsody as the top grossing music film ever. The problem is that Michael Jackson is a very complex figure, with a controversial side, sex allegations against minors included, and a film produced by the estate of Michael Jackson and starring Jaafar Jackson, the talented nephew of Michael Jackson, would never conceivably cover all those topics unbiasedly.

It turns out, {Michael} doesn't cover them at all, something that was reported by Variety weeks ago: the entire third act of the film, centred on the scandal when Jackson was first accused of sexually assaulting a minor in 1993, and how it changed Jackson's life and its polarising relationship with the media, was scrapped. There are no mentions about those episodes in Michael Jackson's life at all in the film.

In fact, the film doesn't show Michael Jackson in any other form other than a divine creature sent from heaven, who decides to donate all the money from the settlement after his terrifying Pepsi commercial incident to the hospital burn centre, in what serves as the climax of the film. Michael Jackson is an innocent, lovable, and flawless person during the movie (that only covers the beginnings of his career, until 1984), and that makes it extremely superficial and even boring. Removing anything that could potentially tarnish the figure of Michael Jackson also means removing anything that could make him feel like a real person and not an idolised figure, with on-screen charisma but with less depth than a star in a video clip.

That wasn't always going to be the case: according to Variety, the filmmakers found late in production that there was a clause in one of Jackson's accusers, Jordan Chandler, that barred the depiction or mention of him in any movie, which prompted the drastic change in the film. So, if the biggest scandal in his career and the pivotal point that changed Michael Jackson's career and life forever cannot even be mentioned, what is the point of the movie? Let alone... two movies: {Michael} is intended to be only Part 1, and with it running only until the {Victory Tour} in 1984, when he finally left his brothers to become a solo artist, it at least has a valid excuse as to not show the more dramatic (and certainly worthier of exploring in a movie) aspects of his life.

The biggest and most shocking flaw of the film is that, even with the opportunity to really focus on Michael Jackson's early years, to properly develop him as a person before the fame and glory, and not rush to tell his entire life in two hours, {Michael} still fails to depict him with any depth. The film only talks about one thing: the relationship between Michael Jackson and his abusive father Joe, and it's developed in a very shallow and predictable way, only sustained by the energic performance from Colman Domingo. Joseph Jackson doesn't exist as a character other than to be the antagonist and the only source of friction of the film.

Everything is (pun intended) black or white. The refusal of the filmmakers to challenge its characters or the viewer in any way almost kills the film entirely and leave it devoid it of any tension and interest, and it only keeps going because the music is objectively great, and as expected, the musical scenes, including a recreation of the Thriller filming, are very well done... but it's pointless to the plot: their only purpose is to enjoy Michael Jackson's music and dances on the big screen, which is the only real value the movie has to offer.

Other than the father and son relationship, the movie doesn't talk about anything else: the relationship between Jackson and his brothers, for example, is inexplicably ignored; you get hints of how he developed his music or marketing deals, but that is not properly explained either; and it doesn't dare to imagine how Jackson's true personality or private life was, which is probably the best choice as to not be speculative and remain respectful in the depiction of a person that isn't around anymore, but not the best idea if you aim to portray an interesting character.

What are we left with? A series of long musical numbers, disjointed music-biopic tropes you have seen a hundred times, and barely a story to hold it all together. There is no drama or emotion, characters are caricatures, and when the musical climax arrives (like Bohemian Rhapsody, it ends with a series of full length musical performances) it only feels gratuitous. The Freddie Mercury biopic, with all its flaws, still earned that ending as an emotional climax as the entire band finally gets reunited (even if that was an invention by the filmmakers). Michael copies the idea to expose its true nature: a soulless commercial ploy to profit on Michael Jackson's talent with minimum risk.

With these biopic movies, regardless of how faithful they are, at the very least you should feel that you have got to know the real person behind the music, learning about the good and the bad, accepting them (or not) for their virtues and their flaws. {Michael} isn't concerned about that, it has the depth of a paper sheet, and it becomes abundantly clear that it is only concerned about milking Michael Jackson, making money out of his music, having absolutely nothing relevant to say.

{Michael} does not explore Michael Jackson as a person, it doesn't reveal anything about his personality or his relationship with his brothers, it doesn't explain how he became the most famous person of the planet. The one thing it does is tell a predictable and poorly written abusive-father and son relationship that could have worked as a subplot, but doesn't work as the anchor of a film like this. Even the musical numbers, which are well made, feel redundant and intentionally stretched to make the film run for over two hours. Maybe Part 2 will fix that, but there's little reason to consider this Michael Jackson saga as something other than a money-making machine with no historian or artistic aspirations.