Why Critics Hated Michael but Audiences Loved It

Ajouté : 2026-05-26

[00:00:05]Something that bugs me so much, and I know a lot of other people that look at Rotten Tomatoes, and it happened to us just recently, is the critics hate the movie, and the public loves the movie.

[00:00:16]The movie I'm talking about is Michael.

[00:00:19]>> Yeah.

[00:00:20]>> We went with And I was, you know, I wouldn't consider myself a huge Michael Jackson fan, but we went and saw it and we're like, "Hey, that was pretty good movie." and it's getting like 37% from the critics. What's the the disconnect between the public and the critics?

[00:00:35]Well, there's a there's a few things that kind of go on with some of these and there's a lot of times individual stories with them. I think a fundamental thing you have to keep in mind is uh going back to what I said at the beginning of this, I watched60 new movies last year. This year, I've already watched you something like over 50 new movies this year. Something like that. I don't know, 40 50. That's just fundamentally different relationship with what you go see. Uh you go see a movie because you want to go see that movie. Michael Jackson fans rushed out to go see Michael Jackson because they're excited to go see it. Critics went to go see it because it's the new movie regardless of whether they like him or not, whether they like the genre or not, anything like that. So I think it's in particular with like fan favorite type of projects. This happened a month ago too with uh Super Mario Galaxy had a pretty low Rotten Tomato score, but audiences adored it. They designed a movie for fans. Michael J or Michael was designed for Michael Jackson fans. Just critics like are going in with just a different perspective.

[00:01:36]You're not walking in necessarily wearing your Nintendo shirt the way that the audience is. I think one of the specific ones with Michael Jackson is the people that bought a ticket. They wanted to go see a movie that reminded them of the excitement of Michael Jackson in the 80s. And they made a movie that turns Michael Jackson into an underdog, which is kind of crazy cuz he, you know, the most talented singer of a generation who had sold a million records by the time he was 10 and was friends with Diana Diana Rouse when he was 9 years old on the Ed Sullivan show in 1969 when he was 11. You know, Michael Jackson's the furthest thing from an underdog in those regards, but you can be the greatest talent on the planet and still face opposition and and conflict, which was with his his dad who was kind of a monster. Well, was a monster. And and so they found that. And so you watch it and it just makes you feel good. And there's so many great songs in there and there's enough deep cuts that you're like, "Yeah." And he was he's a weird enough guy, but it handled his weirdness in a way that was so charming. like the sequence in it where he introduces his family to Bubbles. It's such a perfect example of how weird of a guy he was, but it was so charming. And there's scenes in the I keep like people ask me, should I go watch the movie? Like there's scenes in the movie where like he like fires his dad and then a giraffe walks by in the background or something like that. It's like it's so weird but in a like such a like a it puts a smile on your face kind of way. So, Michael Jackson fans went because they wanted to experience a specific feeling and that's what the movie gave them. And so, they left very happy and people are seeing it over and over and over again. It's going to reach a billion dollars. It's going to do fantastic.

[00:03:18]But almost for that same reason, that's exactly why a lot of people hated the movie. um that Michael Jackson's a controversial figure and there's a lot of people that are utterly convinced that he was guilty of the charges uh despite being acquitted of all 14 charges brought against him. Um they are convinced that he did horrible things. And so when they watch a movie that leaves out all of those allegations and makes them feel like, hey, we're doing a puff piece about this guy that did terrible things to children, they're offended by that and so they reject it.

[00:03:55]Likewise, you have people that they they went in and they wanted this hard-hitting movie exploring the complexities and the nuances and the controversies of Michael Jackson's life. Like, how can you make a movie about Michael Jackson and not have it be about all of this stuff in the '9s? Well, they made a movie that as is covered 20 years like it covers from 1966 to basically 1984 and then has an epilogue in 1988. But like it's a it's a movie that is designed to cover the early years and him kind of breaking out as a solo artist and the the context under which that happened.

[00:04:32]The scandals quite literally took place about a decade later is when they really started um with the accusations and allegations and things like that and the trial was 20 years later. They wanted this movie to cover 40 years. Like it's you can't do that. Like it's is it's so much in his life. And so there's people that like they wanted the movie to be something or critics wanted it to be something that that it wasn't. You had people that have already made up their mind as to who Michael Jackson was and he was a monster and this movie presented him as a sweet, good-natured person and therefore how dare this movie do that. And I I think just in general like it's a movie that's designed it's a very much a popcorn movie. like it it's it kind of follows the same formula as kind of a Bohemian rap city and certain other movies that are um I I don't mean to use this as derogatory of a term as it kind of comes off but like that that puff piece language I like kind of does fit the movie in a sense I really enjoyed it. Um I've been like doing a super Michael Jackson deep dive the last month driving my wife kids crazy listening to so much Michael Jackson and watching everything about the making of all the albums and everything like that.

[00:05:41]Um, so I don't say puff piece and and I don't really mean it with the negative connotations, but it is designed in a way to make him sympathetic, build out his mythology and make him look great.

[00:05:53]Um, and and that's what it does. Of course, he was the greatest entertainer of all time and lived a very weird and interesting life. A lot of things. not terribly difficult to make him seem great cuz he was, but um you know it it's a movie that doesn't present him as having many flaws. It doesn't present um it it it downplays a lot of the rivalries very much downplays a lot of the rivalries amongst the Jacksons. There's a lot of things it doesn't do. It doesn't present. It omits certain people that were when you're leaving out the producer in any major way of offthe-wall and thriller kind of a big deal. Um is there's a lot of things that kind of happened that you people can criticize that are valid but at the end of the day like you just you had fans they made a movie for the fans and fans got exactly what they wanted and people that went a little bit more skeptical. People that didn't just want go in as a fan wanting a a fan piece. people fan service that wanted like this deep exploration like let me know how what makes him tick let me know what he really did let me they didn't get that and so critics are not going as fans they're going as critics um and so many of them left frustrated and I mean if you want to even tie into media narratives of the media he's been out to get Michael Jackson for 40 50 years um and this is the latest one where there the the media or film critics which I guess I fall into that category too despite me giving get a very positive review um set their sights and their aims on on Michael Jackson once again. Once this another one more opportunity he's been dead over 15 years and we're still taking aim at a dead man um and trying to tarnish him, which is is pretty wild. The the degree to which you realize that there targets placed on him all throughout the decades. But um that's my my best guess is to the disconnect between audience and critics.

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