Nearly a month after its release, Michael remains one of the highest-grossing films of 2026. Surrounded by massive anticipation since its announcement, the biopic about Michael Jackson’s life has drawn millions of viewers worldwide.
And although the script was made with the help of family members and people who were a part of Michael’s life, the screenplay was not well received by critics, such as Peter Bradshaw’s review to The Guardian: “Antoine Fuqua’s demi-biopic of Michael Jackson gives you the chimp, the llama, the giraffe…but not the elephant in the living room. It’s like a 127-minute trailer montage assembling every music-movie cliché you can think of.”
Another review was Sam Adams’ to Slate: “The purpose of a biopic is to show us aspects of a public figure that the public never had access to. But Michael utterly fails at giving us any sense of who Jackson was behind closed doors.”.
While family members and members of Jackson’s estate argue that the film celebrates his artistic legacy, critics describe the work as “corny,” “safe,” and “sanitized.” Accumulating a 39% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the main criticisms highlight the clichéd and cautious aspect of the plot, as well as mentioning the lack of exploration of the life behind the performer we knew during his years in the media.
Controversies within the jackson family
Starring Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s nephew, in his film debut, the participation of the singer’s family members in the film generated several controversies. Among the members of the Jackson family, Janet Jackson, singer and Michael’s sister, is absent from the work. In a statement to Variety, LaToya Jackson, another of Michael’s sisters, stated: “She was invited and kindly declined, so we have to respect her wishes. I wish everyone had been in the film.”
Another family member of the artist who generated comments about the biopic was Paris Jackson, Michael’s daughter. She criticized the screenplay, stating that she had “zero percent involvement” with the work. On her Instagram profile, the actress said: “I read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest/didn’t sit right with me, and when they didn’t address it, I moved on with my life. […] A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they’re gonna be happy with it.”
The film also generated controversy when Puck Magazine reported that the film was undergoing rewrites and reshoots in its third act. Originally, the film’s ending was to address the abuse allegations made against the singer by Jordan Chandler in 1993, but due to a legal injunction prohibiting the depiction or mention of Chandler in cinematic works, the already recorded material had to be discarded.
Despite controversies and negative reviews, Michael has seen acclaim from fans all over the world, and been a huge box office success since its release, on April 24th. According to Deadline, the film crossed the US$600 million mark in worldwide box office last Tuesday (12), surpassing the second all-time record for biopics, previously held by Elvis (2022) with US$288.6 million, and is approaching the first place held by Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) with US$910.8 million.
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The article above was edited by Marcela Malafaia.
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