I was able to catch an early preview of Michael, the highly anticipated music biopic, the night before it came out. Besides the new Avengers movie coming out this year, this was the most anticipated movie of the year, and for good reason. Wherever you may be, America, Mexico, China, or even a country with limited access to the internet, they most likely know who Michael Jackson is, and even if they don’t know him by name, they know one of his songs, from Billie Jean, Thriller, to Smooth Criminal.

Coming into this movie, I didn’t know what to expect. I honestly thought the movie wouldn’t go in-depth into Michael’s life because the Jackson estate really censors what is shown of Michael’s life, but honestly, I really enjoyed this movie.

The movie starts off when Michael was a kid back in Gary, Indiana, set in the year 1966, when the Jackson 5 were starting up. It was shown that when Michael was growing up, he was beaten as a child. Which is something I didn’t think they would show in the movie because of what I previously stated about how they tried to censor the life of Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson, in these adolescent scenes, likes to read his favorite book, “Peter Pan,” which heavily inspired the amusement park he built on his compound named “Neverland.”

Which is a plotline I really liked in this movie because later in the movie, older Michael still seems to adore this book and shows how he is still a kid at heart, but for the wrong reasons because he wasn’t able to be a kid when he was a kid with being on the road doing concerts to recording in the studio or to getting abused by his own father.

The movie then takes a huge time jump to the off-the-wall era, with Michael trying to record a solo album and do his own thing without the Jackson 5 group.

This is where we see Joe Jackson become a real villain in Michael’s life, trying to control what Michael does.

Also, in this part of the movie, it really showcases Michael’s love for animals when he gets a Chimp named Bubbles. I think they did a very good job at this part of the movie because Michael’s love for animals was a big part of his life in the movie. It also shows how he has a wide array of animals, from a giraffe to a llama and even a snake.

A part I also thought they would censor in the movie is Michael Jackson’s vitiligo and his plastic surgeries. The movie showcases him. This is also a part where we see Michael fear his father as he tries to hide from his family after getting the surgery, when Joe notices Michael lies to him and says he got surgery for his sinuses, but he really got it because he was insecure that his nose was too big.

The movie then goes into the Thirller era of his carrer where Michael Jackson has a meeting John Branca was there that was played by hollywood super Miles Teller  Michael notices him in the room and hires him to be his manager because he knows his past how he has managed big acts like the Beach Boys after Michael hires him he ask him off a big task of getting ride of Joe Jackson as Michaels manager. When Joe gets fired, he is enraged at Michael because he wasn’t man enough to say it in person; instead, he sent him a letter via fax.

Now, with the biggest burden in Michael’s life, this becomes my favorite part of the Michael movie because we can see him become the superstar he is, recording music videos like “Beat It” and making tracks like “Billie Jean”.

Joseph tries to again guilt-trip Michael and succeeds, and gets him to go on tour with his brothers, but before going on tour, the Jacksons record a commercial, and while recording Micheal into an accident, he gets severely burned. Before the movie, I never knew this had ever happened to Michael Jackson. My dad, Leonardo Serrano, I talked to after we watched the movie, and he said, “I remember it being a big deal when I was growing up.”

A part In the movie though that I was not fond off was how they skipped over the whole proccess of Michael making his album “Bad” instead they skip over it and just show him performing in London for the tour which made no sense to me because it is planned to have a part two of this so why even rush this part of his life just save it for the next movie so you can go in depht of this part of his life.

Overall, I really liked this movie, but it did really lack depth and went way too quickly during the time periods. It’s a fun time at the movies seeing Michael Jackson become the superstar he is, which is why I give it 7.5/10

I talked to Erhs Student Jalonne Morris, who saw the movie opening weekend. “I think the movie was pretty good, I give it an 8/10.”