Or was Antoine Fuqua startin’ somethin’ bad?

Michael Jackson is the greatest musical artist to ever touch the face of this beautiful earth. To me, that statement is not debatable. So when Antoine Fuqua’s Michael landed in theaters on April 24, I was ready, even though Fuqua’s resumé doesn’t exactly scream Michael Jackson (consisting mainly of The Equalizer trilogy and other similarly-minded action films). But nonetheless, my butt was in seat D12 at the Cinemark Downtown Ventura opening weekend. And honestly, I was both pleasantly surprised with parts of the film as well as let down by it.

Let’s start with what works, because there is a lot of it. Jaafar Jackson making his film debut playing his own uncle is nothing short of astonishing. His movement, his voice, the way he carries himself; all brilliant. This is a hall-of-fame-level debut performance from a kid who never even wanted to be an actor. And then there’s Juliano Valdi, who plays young Michael, and who absolutely killed every scene he was in. Watching little Michael be so reserved and never experience a true childhood, while having a bond with his brothers and owning the stage was a performance I will remember for a while. Alec Martinez ‘27 said that this part of the movie “was inspiring and very real. It shows no matter the hardships there’s always a way to be successful.”

The song catalog scenes are obviously phenomenal. Michael Jackson is Michael Jackson. When Jafaar starts singing Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, or when the film gets into the Thriller era’s bass lines and drum machines, you can feel yourself moonwalking in your seat. These performance sequences are the closest thing to a real Michael Jackson concert that most of us will ever be able to experience. Miles Hendrych ‘27 believes the film had “phenomenal presentation and Michael showed the world that Michael Jackson still has influence 17 years after his death.” 

But the way this film made me feel wasn’t always so good (BOOM, double reference).

Michael’s editing feels less like a film and more like an extended trailer for a film that’s better than the one I saw. Scene to scene, it moves with the rhythm of a trailer, highlight reel or TikTok edit rather than a well paced and planned feature film. It doesn’t let itself breathe before cutting to another exterior shot accompanied by an MJ hit. 

And then there’s Coleman Domingo. One of the best working actors today was cast as Joe Jackson, a role that Fuqua criminally underexposed the audience to the reality of. A 1992  miniseries titled The Jacksons: an American Dream delved deep into Joe’s abuse of Michael and at times, is uncomfortable to watch. I assumed this miniseries laid it all out so clearly it would be impossible for any future interpretation to mess up, but I was wrong. Just reading that makes it sound like I disliked Domingo’s performance, but let me assure you that his performance was superb. The fault lies with Fuqua’s directing – in Domingo’s scenes you can feel the Darth Sidious-level of menace he is capable of portraying. 

The score compounds the problem. Leaning exclusively on Michael Jackson’s instrumentals as the film’s underscore has its time and place, there are many moments where it truly elevates a scene. But as the only musical language the film speaks, it feels like a crutch. Rather than giving the audience a sonically engaging score with layered compositions and leitmotifs, we were given the same instrumentals we already knew. 

And my final gripe, the ending. The film closes on a performance of Bad, which is a certified hood classic, but the movie didn’t even touch on that era, so why end on it before announcing a sequel? The strange creative choice only left me dissatisfied with the film’s full lack of that era of Michael Jackson.

The “His story continues” card at the end tells you a sequel is coming, and even with my grievances, to put it in Michael’s words, “I’ll be there.” Because what Michael got right, it got right in a way that made me feel like a kid again, hearing Billie Jean with my mom off of her Thriller CD in our old 4Runner for the first time and understanding why the world stopped for this man.