By: Francesco DeFiore
Michael is a 2026 biopic based on the life of global icon and pop legend Michael Jackson. The film stars Jackson’s Nephew Jaafar Jackson in the titular role and is directed by Antoine Fuqua.
Michael isn’t only the King of Pop, but the King of Biopics. This is, hands down, the best biopic
that I have ever seen. I’m not even a big Michael Jackson fan, yet I still had a blast. This film rocked.
Jaafar Jackson was born to play the role of Michael Jackson, and in my opinion, the only person who could have perfected this role. He is Michael Jackson’s nephew after all. He embodies Michael Jackson in this film; from the way he looks, speaks, sings, dances, and acts, he is flawless.
You can’t even tell that it’s Jaafar; that’s how perfect he was. Jaafar said that it took him
two years of training even to get cast in this role, and I can for sure say that it paid off. This is also Jaafar’s first-ever acting role, which really surprised me, because he killed it in his debut. I honestly think this is truly an Oscar-worthy performance and would not be surprised if he gets nominated for Best Actor at next year’s academy awards. Truly a performance for the ages.
I also really liked Colman Domingo, who plays Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson’s father). Obviously, he plays the antagonist of the film, and throughout the film tries to maintain control of Michael’s career, and I think Domingo portrayed him perfectly.
I also want to give massive credit to Juliano Valdi, who plays young Michael Jackson in the beginning of the film. He is absolutely incredible and does an amazing job capturing Jackson in his younger years.
I have to give props to the production team in this film because they did an absolutely amazing job. The sets were incredible, and they were able to perfectly capture and recreate iconic moments of Jackson’s career in this movie, from Thriller (1982), his Billie Jean Live performance (1983), to the Jacksons Victory Tour (1984) , and so many more.
The makeup and costume design team also did a phenomenal job at making the cast perfectly resemble the characters they were playing, especially Jaafar, who looked completely identical to Michael Jackson in the film. The way this movie was shot was fantastic, and the music was really good (even though I’m not the biggest Michael Jackson fan). I had a smile on my face the entire time I was watching this film, and I was in awe. You can tell the team put a lot of love and care into this film, making it the best it can be.
Now I don’t have any big complaints, but one nitpick that I did have was that the film was very long. I loved most of the movie but there were scenes where I thought it didn’t need to be in the film or went on for too long. I feel like if it were shorter, I would have liked the movie a bit more, but that’s only a minor complaint and does not ruin the movie whatsoever.
Also, I see that the movie isn’t sitting well with most movie critics, and some even call the film garbage. I can understand if some people don’t like the movie that much, but calling it garbage is insane. I’ve seen so many bad movies in my life, and Michael is definitely not one of them.
Everybody has the right to criticize the film and share their opinion, and I respect that, but in my opinion, I think it’s a bit harsh to call this film garbage.
Overall, though, I had such an amazing time with this movie. I think, regardless if you’re a Michael Jackson fan or not, you will have a blast watching this biopic just like I did. This film is obviously only part one of a two-part story, so I am super excited for the sequel.
