Movie Thoughts: Michael (2026)

• Released: April 10th, 2026
• Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
• Running time: 2h 7min
• Rating 2/5

Synopsis

A biopic about the life of Michael Jackson, showing how he went from a child star to the King of Pop, and how he dealt with his father's abuse.

My Thoughts

This is not the worst movie I've recently seen, far from it, in fact. But I do have to say this: Seeing this at the theater was one of the least pleasant experiences I've recently had.

The movie in and of itself is fine, it's a decent biopic about Michael Jackson. I can't speak to its accuracy as I don't know much about MJ to begin with, but as a film, this is not the worst biopic I've ever seen.

However, I do think that it is way too long. It really felt like it was stretching things out too much, especially in the last 20ish minutes and especially considering there'll likely be a sequel. This isn't even Michael's full life's story, it ends in the 1990s. 

The ending just felt like it draaaaaggggeeeeeddd. So much. The last 15-20ish minutes of the movie are basically Michael preforming three songs back to back and it's loud and visually overstimulating and there's constant girls screaming in the background and I just wanted it to stop so badly. Doesn't help that the sound in the cinema I watched this at was way too loud for this particular showing, so I had to sit there with my ears covered for 15+ minutes. 

Legit, this movie did not need to end with three songs in a row. I get that it's a biopic about a musician and you'll want to have songs in there, but three in a row is way too much. You are a movie, not a concert recording. Try to follow your structure and not have things drag too much. I legit almost walked out of the theater due to how overstimulated these last 15-20 minutes made me, and I've never felt so close to doing this as with this movie.

I also don't like how this movie doesn't really call out Michael's unethical ownership of exotic pets. This is not something that should be encouraged, yet the movie shows it as this fun and quirky thing Michael is doing. They did thankfully mosty use CGI and not real animals, but still. It feels way too close to encouraging this behavior to me. 

There is also a scene where one of the kids at a children's hospital is holding a GOSIG GOLDEN Ikea plush, and this scene takes place in the 1980s. The GOSIG GOLDEN plush wasn't released until the 2000s. Why they couldn't be arsed to buy some period-accurate 1980s-released plush is beyond me. This just feels lazy.

If I do have to point out some positives (because despite my unpleasant theater experience I don't hate this movie), it's that the acting is pretty damn great and the performances are definitely stellar. The acting of Jaafar Jackson was definitely commendable, but I also want to shout out the kid playing young Michael who did a really good job.

So no, despite the low rating I didn't hate this movie, I don't think it's terrible or anything. But my cinema experience was terrible and I was honestly kinda bored because the plot felt so slow in quite a few areas. And then those last 15-20 minutes were just too much.