That his death was the top headline was a mark of his global status as a truly iconic pop star so a biopic was inevitable and the result is ‘Michael’. With the studios logo appearing and before the film has even started there’s the singer’s squeal of ‘Eee-hee!’ and ‘Ow’! and it’s enough to establish just which Michael this is. Starting in 1966 the singer as a boy is performing with his brothers and managed by their brutal father Joseph regarding his sons more as a meal ticket to get him out of his low paid job than anything else.

And the Jackson 5’s rise to stardom is covered chronologically with Michael being the one that the record industry recognises as the real talent and the one to go on to global solo success. Michael – wanna be starting something? Quickly gaining international success the rest is history with a career of many highs but also of controversial lows.

That the film has been made with the co-operation of the late singer’s estate is well known and without them his music is unlikely to have been granted permission to be used and it’s a phenomenal back catalogue meaning the film has a soundtrack to die for. Jaafar Jackson plays the singer and having been his real life cousin he probably had more insight than perhaps any other actor and he is tremendous in the role having got the voice and dance routines down to perfection. He’s matched by an equally terrific Colman Domingo as the singer’s father – a brutal self-interested man more concerned about money making and his own reputation than his son’s welfare.

As for the rest of the cast they are very much minor supporting players almost to the point of invisibility especially in the case of Janet Jackson who’s not in it at all. Written by the Oscar nominated John Logan whose impressive screenplays include Gladiator and Skyfall his credentials are impressive but there’s a distinct feeling that he has been leant on here to write what is something of a vanilla version of the singer’s life. It doesn’t shy away from his father’s heavy handedness and the film does cover the pivotal moments in Jackson’s career up to a point – the Thriller album and the hugely influential John Landis directed video (an early throwaway line has him as a child say, ‘I’m not like other kids’ preceding his, ‘I’m not like other guys’ in the Thriller video), the moment he did his moonwalk, the surgery (and it fleetingly alludes to his skin pigmentation issue) and the Pepsi commercial accident that arguably preceded his downfall and death with his heavy reliance on painkillers.

Bad or a Thriller? But it’s that shying away from the dark side of fame throughout the film that culminates with the film ending around the time of the ‘Bad’ tour that serves to underline that this is going explore anything more troubling. The allegations that were levelled from thereon are wholly ignored and it’s something of an abrupt ending to a two-hour film that moves has moved swiftly through his life up to that point that ends with a caption ‘The story continues’ and with what has preceded it seems most unlikely that that latter part of his career leading up to his death is far too contentious to ever been made with the family’s involvement perhaps understandably so.

Which is a pity because so much went on in his life that a two-part film would seem obligatory and arguably the titles of his album’s should have been a pointer to where the second part might have gone – ‘Off the Wall’, ‘Thriller’, ‘Bad’……and ‘Dangerous’. The use of some of the song’s lyrics are as much a commentary on moments in the singer’s life – the Victory tour with his brothers at the behest of his father sees Michael taking a dig at his Dad when he sings, ‘Got me working day & night!’. But its open to interpretation that film ends with him singing, ‘And the whole world has to answer right now Just to tell you once again.

Who’s Bad?’ Blood on the dance floor? There’s no doubt that Michael Jackson was an astonishingly gifted performer and this biopic is not the warts n all biopic that some would want. Instead this is far more of a celebration of the singers success, often in the face of adversity, and for his many fans that will be enough. related feature : Jim Morrison’s mysterious death explored – Before the End documentary director Jeff Finn reveals all related feature : The KLF music video director Bill Butt talks about their documentary, ’23 Seconds to Eternity’ Here’s the Michael trailer….