My Thoughts on Michael (2026) - Don't Stop... 'Cause We Did NOT Get Enough
[If it's not obvious enough, here's the song that's referenced in the title--which, ironically, is also mainly used in the movie's official trailer.]
I just watched this movie on April 23rd and...
The title pretty much says everything that I felt as the credit rolled.
But why exactly I felt that way is the thing that I wanted to talk about here.
This is not an "unbiased review" that some of you might expect--I honestly don't believe that such thing because no one views the world in the same way. This is about what I thought about the movie as someone who was impacted by his creations.
[Btw, is it a spoiler if it's about a biopic based on the history of a famous person's life?
Well, SPOILER or not, you've been warned.]
But First, About My Background...
From what my mom told me, I had been listening to Michael Jackson's songs since I was in the womb. She placed the Walkman on her swollen stomach routinely and played his and Elvis' songs. Sometimes I moved when listening to Elvis, but I moved harder when MJ's music hit.
After being born, his music still played throughout many times of my life, along with Queen's, Westlife's, and many songs by artists from my parents' era. My dad often played VCDs of his music videos and live concerts. Occasionally, my dad (and rarely, my mom as well) dropped snippets of MJ's lore like him being nicknamed "Jacko" (and I thought that was his actual nickname and just recently learned that I was wrong), his hair being burned in "Pepsi incident" (back then, I thought a Pepsi drink caused the burn), the song "Ben" is titled after a rat (I thought Ben was MJ's pet rat and turns out, it's a reference to this rat), and many more that I barely remember right now.
And then, 2009.
I remember when I was playing in neighbor's house when my parents were working, I saw the news of his passing on TV, showing his body fully covered from head to toe and carried to an ambulance, surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of people crying.
I either didn't cry or didn't remember that I cried when that news dropped, but since then, me and my dad started pirating collecting even more of his songs, music videos, live concert videos, and even his movies--including This Is It, because we couldn't afford going to a cinema back then.
In short, I'm not as gigantic of a fan as those MJ fans who can replicate his Moonwalk or name his every pet or something. But I do enjoy a ton of what he had created throughout his life.
Then, skips to 2024, 7 years after my dad's passing, the teaser for Michael Jackson's biopic was released... produced by the person who brought Bohemian Rhapsody (which I wished my dad could watch because he was a big fan of Queen) and the role of Michael Jackson is played by...
...his NEPHEW?! O_o
The agreement to watch this movie in cinema was already made before a word is exchanged between me and my mom. Before we even clicked play to watch the teaser.
The "Concert Movie+" Experience
Me and my mom watched the movie on April 23rd, 2026 at 3:35 PM. Just... regular theater, nothing fancy.
But immediately as "Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’" hit as Universal logo flied in, I was already like...
"Fudge, they did the research well."
Again, I am not a very knowledgeable MJ fan, but from what I remembered, most--if not all--of his solo concerts started with "Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’". It almost felt like a tradition.
The fact that this movie starts with that song made it felt like I'm watching a MJ concert already.
And it sure did feel like watching--no, being in MJ concerts.
I don't mean to be racist... offensive or something like that, but I like the details of the audience during Jackson 5 and MJ's performances. Certain performances are watched by certain groups of people, and their reactions vary. Each performance had its own group of audience and level of enthusiasm, not the same "group of diversity" with the same level of fan-screaming, and it made them felt so real.
As someone who have watched many of MJ's live concert videos, I really appreciate how this movie recreated some of those concerts and more in more personal angle. I remember watching people sobbing and fainting in many of MJ's live concert videos. This movie made me feel like I was among those people and experiencing the "light" of seeing MJ performing on stage in a way that a more impromptu live concert video cannot.
And then, it cuts to the backstage of the Wembley concert, with the audience beyond the curtain chanting the title of this movie:
"Michael! Michael! Michael!"
It might be just me, but unlike previous movie produced by Graham King, it's much harder to choose which singular song that defines MJ than Queen (this might be a hot take, but also the title "Bohemian Rhapsody" is so much more unique and its word choice is rarer than any of MJ's hit songs).
The title "Michael", other than maybe a reference to his fans chanting his name in concert like a prayer, might be due to how this movie delves into the artist's personal life more, instead of their creative journey like in previous movie (as far as I remember). If MJ has more unique nickname that he preferred (because although "Jacko" sounds more unique, he hated it), it would become the title of this movie instead.
Speaking of Michael, there's the man who portrayed MJ himself, Jaafar Jackson.
The teaser was the first time I heard this man's name and I still sometimes forget whose son he is. But I'll do my best to remember his name because my God, when someone makes you forget that you're watching a person pretending to be an artist that you loved, that person did a great job at acting.
Really, even his casual mannerism in the movie feels like MJ and it felt uncannily good to see him in such well-made movie. Like seeing a still-living MJ in a movie produced better than his actual movies like Moonwalker and Ghosts.
I also recently watched his music video and... I understand why he was chosen to play as his uncle.
I haven't delved deep into his discography, but from what I listened, his music genre is different from MJ's. Yet, he showed uncannily similar singing voice and dance movement. As if whatever genre is playing in the background, Jaafar will sing new lyrics like a Jackson and dance new move like a Jackson.
It's different between being able to mimic MJ's movement and being able to move as a Jackson. Most people will do snippets of pre-existing MJ's moves, but Jaafar can create a new flow without losing that Jackson's "aura".
Anyway, back to the movie.
I enjoyed the process of making some of the songs and MJ's closeness with Quincy Jones (RIP, and I just found out that he's the same person who sang one of my favorite songs, "Ai No Corrida", lol) as well. Little Michael was so lively with his feet that I can't help but shaking my feet as well. The creation of "Beat It"--and Thriller album, in general--was depicted well and informative (this whole movie is so informative for me who only knows the surface of MJ's lore, lol). It depicted how MJ was a dancer as much as he was a singer quite well, as the movie showed the creative process of his "jacket sway" in "Beat It" (and later used in many other songs) and his suggestion on making the camera moving backward during "Thriller" to capture the entire body movement, instead of moving forward and focusing on MJ's face. And the incorporation of the... beat of "Beat It" for the build-up was chef's kiss.
Speaking of process, I know MJ was quite an inventor of moves (you owe us "Smooth Criminal" 's tilt, Graham King), but it's nice to see where the inspiration came from. Not only that, it has personal touch with Katherine being present with MJ almost every time they watched a movie.
I wished I was not the only who shook my body and sang throughout the movie in theater. The theater at that time was filled only a quarter of it and it was damn quiet. But at the same time, this is 2026. It has been 17 years since MJ's passing and it's not a surprise that not many people know him as much as when I was a kid.
Despite there's a lot of music performances in this movie, this is not a live concert video. The main meat is in the private part of the story.
Have You Seen Michael's Childhood?
The movie opens with children playing outside, and our young main protagonist watching them from the closed window, wishing to join in that seemingly trivial joy of childhood.
It was a classic movie opening, but it does make a difference when you remember that "young main protagonist" was a real-life person.
Both Juliano Krue Valdi and Jaafar Jackson are such incredible actors who can capture MJ's child-like wonder, sense of longing for friends, and traumatic pain that shadowed him for large part of his life.
I've heard and read about Jackson 5 being their father's steel hand creation, about MJ having many pets and enjoying kids stuffs in his adulthood, and the flying ships in "Childhood" and his Neverland Ranch are the fruits of his love for Peter Pan.
Yet, there's a different between reading and watching it happens.
I was never abused as much as what MJ had experienced, but I did experience physical punishments from my mom... I think until before my dad passed away. I felt like reliving those punishments when seeing little Michael being whipped with Joseph's belt.
What broke me was when Michael sniffled silently at the corner after getting whipped, trying to not cry too loud or his father would become angrier at him and whip his belt harder. It's like after getting mauled by a beast, you can't scream for help because it will attract more beasts to come at you.
The choice is either you have to reach for help without the beast hearing you because you can't fight it alone, or be silent and make the beast thinks you're "dead" and leave your body behind.
That's basically what I sensed throughout this movie. A lot MJ's private life in this movie is focused on him obsessing over "misunderstood" pets, enjoying kids toys and games, and visiting sick children in hospitals. All of those felt like silent signs for help disguised as "eccentric" daily life in this movie, that I couldn't help but wanting to hug him (and play Twister with him, perhaps).
Speaking of Twister, I could've sworn I've seen a scene similar to the one when MJ was shopping for toys and more and more people who shopped there gathered to ask for his autograph in another movie before. Maybe even in Bohemian Rhapsody? I don't remember.
I like how he's depicted as not just someone who cares about children, but is a child himself (at heart) when he talked about the game that a boy in that toy shop just bought. I never played MJ's game Moonwalker, but I heard a lot about it and his passion for games. I mean, my man play-tested Law when Tekken 1 was at its prototype stage.
[please, do not recreate MJ's visit in E3 1995 even for 10 frames in the sequel, or I'll faint.]
It also shows when MJ was visiting sick children in hospitals. Yes, he was a generous person, but he was not just shown giving toys, but also playing with them. As if he was just another kid in the group.
Btw, after MJ was shopping, there's a scene of him inviting his brothers to play Twister, but they now had their own life and...
Actually, at this point of the movie, I wished MJ's siblings are less of background characters. But then, not only it's near-impossible considering the already-long duration of the movie, I also don't know how close he was with them in real life.
Back to the movie, MJ later played Twister with his chimp, Bubbles. The CGI was rough, but I was surprised that Bubbles' adoption is included in this movie at all--and now I learned that he adopted him quite earlier in his life than I thought.
And that was before MJ went to the kitchen and accidentally encountered his father, who just got fired by him through fax from his lawyer Branca. MJ was like a deer in a headlight, really showing how much pain that Joseph had drilled into his psyche.
Speaking of Branca though, CMIIW, but I think I remember seeing in the Branca recruitment scene, most of people's glasses were filled with water and I think a couple of them were filled with coffee. Yet, only MJ's glass was filled with bright, kid's favorite orange juice. I don't know if it was an actual depiction of history or just an artistic choice to depict him as the only "kid" in the room of adults, but I like that symbolism.
Now, about being like a deer in a headlight, it was not the only time it happened in the movie. Later on, when Joseph was in MJ's room and told him about Victory Tour, the camera shot at MJ's hand holding the door handle and I was waiting for him to shut it or slam it on Joseph's face or something.
He did nothing.
Despite him telling Joseph that "I am an adult", that sentence felt more like a wish, in a truth that he is still a helpless little boy in his father's eyes and he couldn't escape it.
This longing to escape Joseph's grasp is also depicted from MJ repeatedly reading and carrying Peter Pan book, even in his adulthood. Like I said, I know about his love for Peter Pan that shows in his "Childhood" music video and his Neverland Ranch, but I didn't expect it to be the main thematic object of this movie and I think there's no better object that defines--or even shapes--MJ as a person that he was.
If this movie's intention is to mainly shows about MJ's childhood abuse and his long journey to escape it, this movie did insanely well.
And...
Oh, God, the Pepsi thing.
To preface this part, again, I vaguely remembered about "Pepsi" and "burned hair" being connected, and I think I heard about MJ almost becoming a boxer--in 3 Idiots, the main character has this line about listening to a father's wish that is something like: "Imagine if Michael Jackson's father forced him to be a boxer, and Muhammad Ali's father made him a singer, think about the disaster!".
I didn't know that both of those things were all connected.
This is why I need movies like this to visualize history, to understand how and when certain events connect to each other.
So turns out, Pepsi drink didn't cause the hair burn like I thought, but it's the pyro behind him during the rehearsal for Victory Tour, sponsored by Pepsi.
I didn't expect the "Pepsi incident" (yes, I will still call it that) to be the climax of this movie because the way that my parents told me about that incident sounded like it was a mere "celebrity accident trivia". I didn't know it was a third-degree burn, not just singeing the hair.
And the way he cried...
It's like when he was whipped with his father's belt.
The movie's arc starts with MJ crying and ends with MJ crying.
And despite him crying like--or as--a child again, Joseph kept pushing again.
Man, Colman Domingo is good at portraying an abusive father, perhaps almost to the point of being cartoonishly good. Although I don't know how "cartoonishly evil" the actual Joseph Jackson was in the house, lol.
Btw, CMIIW, but I think after MJ decided to donate for the people in that hospital who got burn injury and determined to help "healing" everyone in the world with his talent, there's "Heal the World" playing in the background. I believe that song was made some times after the last song in this movie, "Bad", and hearing it evoked the sense of brighter future to come. It's like, "I have to stop my father, I need "Heal the World" to happen!"
And speaking of brighter future, I just did a little research about the "last show" announcement--apparently this sudden stop didn't get into our national TV, so my parents didn't know anything about this--and turns out...
...it happened during "Shake Your Body", NOT "Workin' Day and Night".
According to this video, though, "Workin' Day and Night" was on the setlist, about three songs before "Shake Your Body".
Yet, here's the thing:
I got the sense of this movie being more focused on the internal journey of MJ--the struggle in his private life, the essence of what he had gone through under Joseph's leash.
It felt like this movie was not just made for us who are still living, but for Michael as well, who had immense passion for fictions, cultivated by his times watching movies with his mom and reading children's books. Who--at least as far as I understand about his personality--would love a fairytale escape from his miserable past.
Historically, yes, it's inaccurate and there's at least digital proof against it.
Morally, choosing "Workin' Day and Night" as the song before the "last show" announcement drives home the thematic message of ending childhood abuse that had been done in the name of "feeding the family" perfectly.
And with "Human Nature", a song about child-like wonder and innocent human desire to connect with stranger, being sung before it makes "Workin' Day and Night" sounds like Joseph denying said Michael's desire.
And the last song, "Bad", hammers down MJ's finally earned freedom. A victory song after escaping Joseph's Victory Tour.
I'll be honest, I had been listening to MJ's songs for literally my entire life, but I never understood what he said in those songs because of his accent, and his words are so acoustically mixed with onomatopoeias of his creation that I couldn't tell which one is an actual onomatopoeia, lol.
Anyway, I searched for "Bad" lyrics and this part, in my opinion, can sum up the contrast between how Joseph handled Michael and how Michael handled Joseph:
"Gonna hurt your mind, don't shoot to kill"
When firing his father didn't work, when he was powerless to even stand on his own in front of him, he targeted the source of Joseph's monetary motivation: the audience.
When hundreds of thousands of audience still chanted Michael's name after he announced the sudden stop of Victory Tour, he had hundreds of thousands of people to help pushing away the beast and gaining his long-yearned freedom.
And... "His Story Continues"?
Me and my mom were heavily flabbergasted when that text popped out, before...
...credits rolled.
"HWHAAAAT?!"
My mom was heavily disappointed that it ended in cliffhanger.
Me?
I'm already excited for Jackson in 2032, lol!
This was not the first time we got "cliffhung". I think the first time we were left like this in cinema was after watching Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse.
Personally, this one is understandable because drama-wise? MJ's life need at least duology.
Discography-wise? Even if you'll only put in the hit songs, trilogy might not be enough--and that is why his biopic is not titled after one of his songs, unlike Queen with Bohemian Rhapsody.
And man, imagine the money that'll be needed to pay the "artists" to recreate the making of "We Are the World".
If I'm being honest, this format was probably the best way to represent MJ's life in a biopic. When you're targeting newcomers (or even me) who vaguely know about MJ at the most, this movie captures the essence of who MJ is quite well:
A child's spirit in adult's body.
A product of his father's years-long pressure.
A sympathetic soul that yearns to help everyone of any color in the world with his artistic talent, yet need to break the chains tied by the person who refuse to let his boy go.
This foundation is what shaped MJ into the person that he was. Even until later in his life, what he was inside was still "stuck" at that age. This movie has laid the necessary foundation well and the sequel can build from it.
If, at worst, the biopic stops at this movie and there's no Michael 2 (or whatever title it will be), this movie already covered what's important about MJ.
At best, we will get to know about his life post-Jackson 5, including (but not limited to) his downhill love life, the false accusation of him being a pdf...
...and perhaps whatever struggles he experienced that led up to his passing.
I read some "reviews" of this movie yesterday and from what I understand, a lot of them said that this movie is too polished and doesn't shows the "bad" side of MJ.
When I watched this movie, it did feel like watching a... fiction movie. A Disney fairytale with clear good guys and bad guys...
...
...like the Peter Pan book that Michael loved.
Maybe it was their intention? To create not a historic documentary for just history buffs, but an entertaining "concert movie" that spreads the moral of anti-child abuse.
To prevent what happened to Michael Jackson from happening to any child in the world. To inspire those who suffer to escape from it.
If that's the intention, I'm fine with it. In fact, they did a great job at achieving it.
It could be the rose-tinted glasses that have been stuck since I was in the womb. But I wish whoever else reviewing this movie do NOT brush off this child abuse topic out of this biopic. And I wish despite the bad reviews in the public, people still have enough child-like wonder to watch it for themselves and learn from it.
And I'm saying this as someone who experienced a tiny sliver of the abuse that Michael had to suffer through.
I guess that's why I chose to put that specific version of Michael movie poster in this post. Because I don't want the little Michael to be left out of this talk.
In conclusion...
It had been... I think a year since the last time me and my mom watched a movie in a cinema--and I don't even remember what movie that we watched before this. if MIchael is still up in the theater, I want to see it again.
And if I still have the money and the time, AGAIN.
Not only because I had a blast nostalgia-jamming with his songs, but I want the sequel of this movie to happen.
I want HIStory to continue.
