Michael (2026) Review: A Fun But Lacking Depth Look at the Icon

I was excited for the Michael biopic, but it’s more of a surface-level look at his time coming up.

Michael (2026) may be one of the year's top films due to its box office success. It might even be able to cross a billion. The film itself is a good time if you like his music or want to learn some of the history behind it. But if you’re looking for something in depth, this is not the one.

I understand that with the most popular artist of all time, there’s so much ground to cover, and they couldn’t really do that with just one movie. It made sense that they decided to have this movie end in the late 80s and continue with another film to show the rest of his life. If they do continue, they’re going to have to address some of the allegations that Michael Jackson had as well as the controversies. 

It feels like they wanted to put out a feeler to see how good the movie would do. Now that Michael (2026) made so much, they can probably make a sequel or even draw this out to a trilogy because of all the history Michael Jackson has. A lot of the controversies and scandals began to happen around the time the movie ended, so they wanted to have a very clean film with this one. 

As a musician myself, I like to see how they create all these iconic songs, and they did a good job of that with a couple of scenes, but I obviously wanted more of that.

Michael (2026) was made with a lot of supervision from the Jackson family. In fact, Michael Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, plays Michael Jackson in Michael (2026). He does an outstanding job. I thought I wasn’t going to like the fact that there were so many long, drawn-out scenes of just being performed, but I definitely didn’t mind it at all.

The performances are all there, and the hair and makeup are incredible. If you look at who each character is portraying, they look almost just like them. I feel like the hair and makeup will definitely get an Oscar nomination.

Michael (2026) certainly takes a cautious approach to many of Michael Jackson's stories. They definitely did show a little bit of the dark side of his life, specifically when he was a child. They show how evil and mean his father was, especially towards Michael Jackson. There are so many stories of the things he did to Michael growing up, and they settled for his father being verbally and physically abusive towards him. 

Michael (2026) definitely went more into the family dynamic, especially in the beginning, which makes sense as Michael Jackson was playing with his brothers before he became a solo artist. It was cool to see that story, as that’s one that’s not really touched upon. He went on to make the biggest albums of all time on his own. But we tend to forget how much success he had with the Jackson 5 and how popular they were as a group. 

Michael Jackson’s father is not around anymore, so they were able to portray him however they really wanted, as he didn’t have any say in that. Which leads me to my next point: Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson's sister, was not in Michael (2026) at all. She’s probably the most popular outside of Michael Jackson in their family.

But she declined to be in Michael (2026) and where she is still alive, so they really couldn’t have any say in that. Michael Jackson’s mother was still alive, so they really had to portray her a certain way also. Not saying that she was as bad as his dad or anything, but they definitely had to play their cards right for the people who were still alive. They wanted to make sure Michael (2026) did not displease anyone who is currently living. 

Where Janet Jackson isn’t in there, it definitely feels not as accurate. Because it has a big emphasis on the Jackson Brothers and their camaraderie. That definitely hurts the film because a lot of biopics are all about being accurate, and this film definitely had a lot of accuracy. The film kind of prides itself on having some of these unique little tidbits of truth to the Michael Jackson story. 

I was definitely entertained with Michael (2026), and it’s one of those movies I could watch again, as I am a fan of Michael Jackson’s music. Most of the world likes Michael Jackson’s music, so I think most people could be able to watch this and be entertained just by seeing a little bit of the story behind it. But if you’re expecting something that’s going to go beyond surface level, you’re not really going to get it. 

There are a lot of deleted scenes; apparently they do show some more of these unique tidbits of the Michael Jackson story. They shot a lot of stuff supposedly, and there are a ton of deleted scenes. I’m curious to see if when Michael (2026) comes out on DVD and streaming they’ll put out some of these deleted scenes. They might not because a lot of them might’ve been cut out due to them being controversial. 

I definitely wanted more from this film, but a lot of that is because I knew so much about Michael already. 

But for someone who doesn’t really know much about Michael Jackson and just knows the music, I think they’ll really enjoy it. There are some really great scenes showcasing how much work the actors put into the authenticity of his dances, music videos, and production. 

But if they don’t take some risk with the next Michael Jackson film, they might be in trouble. By that time, anyone who had seen the first film prior did some research of their own and wanted a lot more about him. Just like any time a biopic comes out, people end up going back and looking at the people’s works. So right now Michael Jackson’s music is pretty popular again with it jumping back on the Billboard music charts. So now they have that audience; they should definitely try some new things with the next film.

They could even divide it into two films and even film them pretty close together. But there have been pictures surfacing around, seemingly confirming that they are working on the next film already. There’s so much of a story that can be told.

They did what they had to do with this first film, although they could’ve done more, so the ball is in their court to see how they handled the rest of Michael Jackson’s history.

The more famous Michael got, the more he tried to be secluded, so there are a lot of stories to tell behind closed doors. There are all kinds of rumors as well that they could put to rest, seeing as the Jacksons are heavily involved in the making of these films. They can give their side of the story out of the crazy tabloid stories that we were out there. There are many documentarys made to show the dark side of Jackson's history. 

Of course, the elephant in the room is the allegations Michael Jackson had towards him for child molestation. They are going to have to address that in the next film. I'm curious to see how they address it because a lot of people are divided on it, especially after the Leaving Neverland documentary that aired on HBO years ago. They have the resources and money to do what they want, so I hope they try to do something different.