I never cared for the video. Magic Johnson is unintentionally funny and his 'acting' is pitiful. His appearance always struck me as contrived that since he was big in the media @ the time for having contracted AIDs, that's the reason he was put in the video (he's done nothing like it before or since).
I always thought it was grotesque that the first performer(s) got killed. I never like a protagonist chasing around such a witch who would so easily order someone's death because he didn't amuse her or her boorish husband. BTW, she's married, so I'd prefer to not see the hero of the video as an enabler of adultry.
Eddie Murphy keeps making weird faces. Is that supposed to be funny? "HA, look, Eddie's cocking his eyebrow! MJ's raising his suspician, ha ha!" . . . I didn't *get* the video when it came out, and I still detest it. Eddie Murphy's career had fully morphed into crap at this point, and it's pretty clear from this 'short film' that he lost any edge he had in the 80s if he thinks raising his eyebrow and flailing his arms is funny.
Nothing happens in the video to suggest the King treats the Queen poorly, so it only makes the protagonist look like a jerk for trying to steal her, and puzzling as to why he would even want her in the first place, aside from her power or beauty, which would just make the protagonist shallow. Yes I hear the lyrics -- the two had a past -- but she still comes across as an aloof, heartless murderer, so any redeeming qualities she may have had, she clearly lost them along w/ her value system.
It all just seems like an opportunity to showcase fancy special effects and celebrity friends w/ a 'big name director,' while throwing together weak characterization set to the backdrop of ancient egypt (oooo-kay?). It's easily my least favorite video.
