MICHAEL | MOVIE REVIEW

One word – epic! Right from the opening this is a musical journey you don’t want to miss.

Michael is obviously the story of Michael Jackson’s focusing on his humble beginnings in the family band “The Jackson Five” at the age of 10 through to breaking away from the controlling grasp of his father; to becoming one of the world’s top visionary pop stars.

Michael is played by his very own nephew Jaafar Jackson in his acting debut. This adds a layer of authenticity, and it’s fair to say Jaafar has done his Uncle proud. Director Antoine Fuqua who also directed the Muhammad Ali; Lighting in a Bottle and Emancipation movies captured well the struggles of a young Michael trying to be loyal to his family whilst finding his own inner confidence to branch out on his own.

There’s no question Michael was a music genius and the music and performances throughout the movie make you want to get up and dance. The movie does tend to paint him as a saint and focuses on all he did for sick children and minority communities and skates around anything controversial by ending before his life started to unravel. This made the movie lighter and an enjoyable watch, but I can see some would feel that it’s a one sided view of his life.

As a “Gen Xer” this was a boggie down memory lane back to the times when you had to wait to buy the album to hear the music or try to tape it off the radio and pray the DJ didn’t talk over the start; and or hope they screened the music video on Ready To Roll on Saturday night.  The styling, fashion, music and the release of game changing videos like Thriller were on point!

I would highly recommend you see this movie in theatres on the biggest/loudest screen you can to get the full Michael Jackson experience.