THE CRITICS ARE WRONG AGAIN! - Michael - Movie Review

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Hello there all you beautiful people. My name is  Labushki and welcome back to another movie review.

[00:00:05]This time for the movie Michael. Now I'll be  honest, I didn't plan on seeing this movie.

[00:00:11]It wasn't necessarily something that piqued my  interest, mostly because I'm not a huge biopic guy. We've gotten a lot of those lately and I've  just been getting increasingly bored with them.

[00:00:20]Bohemian Rapsidity really started something in  the biopic department where we just need to give every famous person uh up and coming story  and a lot of them just don't work you know especially with musicians and that's okay there's  a lot of people out there who like that and who like the music that is completely fine I am just  saying for me personally I'm not a biopic guy I'm not even a huge Michael Jackson guy and  that's mostly just because he died when I was No.

[00:00:51]So, like I never really got to know  him or know anything about him.

[00:00:55]All I know is what's come out, you know, more  recently between like Epstein file stuff and the controversy surrounding his character. And that's  not a great picture to have of a famous person, especially when it's like the main  cultural thing you're growing up in.

[00:01:10]But I have my opinions on that. Whether you  agree or disagree, that's completely fine.

[00:01:16]Michael Jackson innocent, easily  said. But let's hop into the review.

[00:01:24]I thought this was a very respectful and  honoring revelation of the world famous icon, Michael Jackson. Let's be honest, he's a bit of a  weird dude. We've seen the interviews. We've seen, you know, the surgeries and the things he's done  and said, and he's just kind of a weird dude.

[00:01:39]That's all right. When you're  raised in the environment he was, and when you're forced into stardom at a young  age, you're going to turn out a little bit odd.

[00:01:48]And I guess that's why it was very easy for people  to push on to him or push on the narrative that he was like a pedto and a bunch of creepy and bad  accusations when in reality he really wasn't.

[00:02:06]It kind of came and stemmed from the fact that at  such a young age, Michael Jackson was forced into show business and his childhood was micromanaged  by his incredibly doineering manager/f father.

[00:02:21]So his childhood experience was not complete.  He hardly had a childhood. It was touring and singing and being beat because he wanted to  go and play but his dad wanted him to perform.

[00:02:34]So, exploitation of a child is definitely a very  big theme of this movie and it really explains why Michael was such a childish person at heart. And  that's not that's not to say it was a bad thing.

[00:02:49]You know, we typically assume that if  an adult is childish, they're a problem, but sometimes there's a reason for that. Sometimes  there's a reason that we don't think about.

[00:02:59]And I mean that's an unfortunate reality, but it  is what happened to poor Michael Jackson. There's a powerful juxosition of family versus stardom and  the cost of each. One of the things that Michael Jackson's father did, Joseph Jackson is his name,  is he would guilt Michael into performing despite him not wanting to. Once he got to the age where  he could no longer doineer over him with a belt, it became mental manipulation. It would be a  oh well you don't love this family which is why you want to do your own thing and obviously you  hate us you hate me and it really scared Michael because he was he usually took the brunt of his  father's rage being the youngest and because he was the most popular his father had a stronger  urge to control him and to control his life.

[00:03:53]So, there's a very great back and forth between  Michael and his dad in this movie as Michael tries to develop into his own person, his own  star, but his dad continually suffocates him under the Jackson 5 brand. And it reminds me of  The Fablemans, if you've ever seen that, which is loosely based on Steven Spielberg's young life,  where uh his uncle, I believe, tells him that family and art just don't go together. One tears  the other apart whether you want it to or not.

[00:04:35]And that's just the reality. And I thought that  was very, very well portrayed in this movie.

[00:04:41]Jafar Jackson, who is a cousin, I believe,  of Michael Jackson, is fantastic. He really embodies the role wonderfully. From  what I've seen from interviews and whatnot, Michael has a very distinct personality. And Jafar  really like I mean the the family relation aside, he really got that down pat because Michael  always had quite a high voice and a very unique sound to him which is what made him so popular  is because he could sing in such a unique way.

[00:05:16]And Jafar Jackson, he somehow manages  that and manages to come across seriously because when a guy has a voice that  high, he typically is not taken very seriously as I'm sure Michael wasn't in certain situations.  But honestly, this feels like a concert with how well done the music and sound is. It's colorful.  It's unique. You get to go through some of Michael Jackson's greatest hits. you know, the ABC song,  Thriller, Bad. Uh, I can't think of any more, but I know there's more, especially from  his Off-the-Wall album. Oh, Human Nature.

[00:05:57]But you kind of get to witness all these songs,  and with Jafar Jackson being such a close relative of Michael, they sound really good. All the  songs sound like Michael Jackson is singing them.

[00:06:12]So, I don't know. I think it's worth the price  of admission alone cuz you get a little bit of a a concert when you go to this movie. But  overall, between the color, the madness, the stardom, and the fame, no one ever did  it like Michael Jackson. We all know this.

[00:06:28]To think otherwise is pure folly. Probably  the greatest pop star in the world. fact that he's been dead for 17 years and Billy  Jean is at the top of the charts at the moment as I'm currently reviewing this. I  believe hopefully it still is. It's just insane.

[00:06:45]Five generations or five decades Michael  Jackson's music has been transformative and changing the game. And unfortunately,  there probably won't be anyone else like him.

[00:06:56]But it was good what he did while we had  him. Overall, I think Michael is an excellent addition to the biopic genre of films. This is  a part one, part two type of situation. There is going to be a Michael 2 or a Michael part two,  but they should honestly just call it Jackson.

[00:07:14]Call the first one Michael, the second one  Jackson. That'd be pretty funny, I think. But I give this an A minus, a 90 out of 100. You know,  because it's a biopic, I can't do a lot. And it's there's a very decent chance that that rating will  change when the second part comes out just because the story does feel a little bit incomplete.  And like I said, I'm not a huge biopic guy.

[00:07:41]But I'm very interested in how the world perceived  Michael and how he became who he was. So I'm very interested to see what part two does cuz part two  will probably center more on all the controversy in his life. And I really hope that that's handled  well, especially since most of it is false.

[00:08:01]Yeah, sorry to be controversial, but let's be  honest. Or just really just look at the facts in my opinion. I'm sorry I'm getting off  topic. This is just my opinion. You don't have to agree. That's completely fine. But one  of the things that I didn't want to address is the sharp contrast between  critic and audience scores because this movie is, you know, supposedly  rotten, but the audience score is very high.

[00:08:28]And I got to say, it is an enjoyable movie. It is  a very enjoyable movie. And if you like Michael Jackson or his music, you will enjoy this. You  know, I saw a family come in to the theater and they had brought their kids, very young  kids, which is always kind of a annoyance for me because then I'm like, "Oh, great. There's  going to be kids screaming throughout the movie."

[00:08:49]But no, they were locked in. They were sat down  and they were dancing to the Michael Jackson songs and it was adorable. And I was like,  man, this is exactly what Michael Jackson was wanting. He wanted unity through his music.  He had a undeniable power to bring people together and it was kind of a very beautiful thing  to see in theaters if I'm being honest.

[00:09:13]But that sharp critic and audience contrast  isn't and really shouldn't be much of a surprise when the critics don't like it because it  exposes their exploitation of younger stars.

[00:09:25]And if you didn't you if you didn't figure  that out by now, you haven't been paying enough attention to how Hollywood works,  unfortunately. But that is all I have to say.

[00:09:34]Thank you everyone so much for watching  and joining me on another movie review.

[00:09:37]Like, comment, and subscribe. I'm interested to  hear what other people think about this movie.

[00:09:43]There will be a playlist linked in the description  below that will have my other movie reviews.

[00:09:48]I've been Labushki. This has been the movie review  of Michael. I hope you all have a wonderful day doing as you shall be doing, and I'll see you in  the next one. Until then, take it easy. Peace out.