Jaafar is SO CRAZY GOOD. OH MY GOD. GIVE THIS MAN AN OSCAR. The best mimicry performance of an artist ever. I thought he was MJ the entire time. There are so many MJ impersonators but no one ever nailed anything. Not the voice, not the moves, not the quirks. Jaafar does it all. The voice! He nailed it. The quirks, the moves. He nailed it all. Finally someone who gives MJ respect. Because I feel most impersonators go into mockery territory. Now I feel like that more than ever after seeing Jaafar. I remember feeling it was uncanny valley when I watched the trailer and saw Jaafar's eyes and nose, but that's totally gone like 5 mins into the movie. He channeled MJ's body and spirit. Juliano also did great on that front. That boy is crazy talented too. Never to forget him, but he doesn't get that much screentime. He's out by 20 min in lol.
Colman is another one that nailed it. He's vouching for an Oscar too. Legit scary and menacing in the beginning and towards the end it goes into cuckooland which is very Joe. But there are critical issues which are not Colman's fault, which is just so unfortunate because there is so much wasted potential.
Nia is good but she didn't stand out much as a performance. We love Katherine but she's the loving and supportive mother thats easy to perform lol.
I love the attention they give to Bill.
I love what they did to all the songs. I love those remixes. That's the kind of thing I want to hear. And it's so exhilarating watching it all being performed like the original again. They did a really good selection of songs. It was surprising to hear many Jacksons songs.
I love the attention to detail – I think they did much better here than in Bohemian Rhapsody. The costumes, props, locations, scenarios. Its stylized just the right way. The timeline. It's all right. Of course there are minimal details like "Oh he didn't write WBSS in 1983, he wrote years before" or "Vincent Patterson helped create the Beat It choreo" and so on and so forth, but it felt intentional as a means to say he's the genius behind the music. Which is true, but those are not the real examples. Which is scummy. BUT I know they need to have a narrative, they need to establish character and this is a way to do that. Yeah, movie scripts are not real life, they are exaggerated. That aside, the timeline is very loyal to the facts. Bohemian Rhapsody was way more confusing. So I could tell this was made with a lot of love. I also love that they referenced that Michael took a lot of inspiration from old Hollywood movies for his short films, that he loved Charlie Chaplin, the 3 Stooges, James Brown, Fred Astaire.
I love that they showed him being Michael, with the animals, the hospitals, the jokes, and loneliness. That's what I thought the movie should do from the offset. Show him as a human. I thought it did very well.
Now I'm going into the critical issue: it's very light on story. There's no story. Besides the 4 characters I mentioned and John Branca, there's no other relevant character. It felt like a greatest hits tour, because what drives the plot are the performances. Between the performances there are some very minimal interactions between characters lol. And things are just thrown at you. From Gary, they're suddenly in the studio with Berry Gordy. Berry says that Michael can ask him anything and that goes nowhere; it's just a scene to show Joe trying to isolate Michael. Then Michael out of nowhere knows Quincy and that's it. Then they randomly mention Jermaine is out the band, but that doesn't matter, because I don't even think Jermaine has a line. There's still the scene in Studio 54 but it's a quick montage that feels out of context. There's a quick mention of vitiligo and no follow-up on the story. They try to establish the core story like almost 1 hour in: Michael wants to break away from his father and do a solo tour. Honestly? That's barely a story. It's the same story Branca told in the Thriller 40 documentary, and it's funny because Branca comes as the man of the day and saves Michael from his father – now Michael is free from his family and free to be himself thanks to John Branca. I rolled my eyes hard!! Its crazy the reviews didn't pick on this. Yes, there's something missing and something off but it's not what they said. There's barely a climax; I guess it would be the Pepsi incident, which, by the way, was done superbly, considering American Dream gave me trauma on how bad it is, but here's it's done professionally lol. The whole tour thing kinda makes the point of Joe as villain moot. Yes, Joe loses his steam early on in the narrative. Which is a shame, because Colman did so great. Knowing how Michael loves to tour, it's just a very flimsy argument. Plus, the lack of an accompanying story makes the scenes establishing MJ as a character a moot point too, and it's unfortunate for the non-fans. I think Bohemian Rhapsody did better in the narrative area and I remember saying I didn't want it to be like BH, I wanted something original and tastefully done as a narrative. They had everything to make a great biopic, but the story. Considering the obvious cuts, I guess it's a miracle they even had something to show. It does feel very chopped.
No Diana Ross, no Elizabeth Taylor, no Liza Minelli, no the Wiz. None of the siblings have proper dialogue lol. DiLeo shows up for a quick sec (he doesn't speak lol). Just Michael, Katherine, Bill, Joe and Branca talking about Thriller and the Victory Tour. That's the core story.
Bad era is just a quick prop lol. Just like American Dream and Bohemian Rhapsody lol
All in all, it's definitely not a 1/10, but it's not a 9/10 either. I would give it a 6 or 7. Because I'm a fan and it was exhilarating to hear the old songs and watch the videos being done, but I like movies and I see no convincing well-crafted story here. And it's a very hesitant and frustrating note because they had everything to get a 10/10 from me. I'm very curious about the sequel as a fan because this movie seems to be made with a lot of love but I don't see them fixing the issues. I think American Drama handled the script better (which is not a compliment, but things clearly go from point A to point B in American Dream), but this movie handles the things TJ: AD couldn't so much more beautifully and professionally, which are the performances and the scenarios.
I really loved it watching it though. It's a good 6 or 7 movie for me. It was a very good time. I'll watch it again for entertainment purposes.
Not every day you can experience MJs music in cinema with other fans! You might even enjoy yourself 
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