Michael
I hate myself for this but I enjoyed this film significantly more upon rewatch.
When I first watched the film I was approaching it as someone who was barely familiar with MJ but after watching the film originally I started listening to a lot more of his music. I’ve became a huge MJ fan and have grown a love for his music. So now going in to this rewatch I was approaching it as a huge MJ fan.
Now approaching the film with a fairly different lens I have to say I enjoyed the film significantly more, it won, and I’m pissed. This is a film that is flooded with incredible music with riveting concert sequences and a stellar performance by Jafaar and it captivated me from beginning to end.
This film is made for people who just want to listen to music they love from an artist they love, when I first watched it I wasn’t one of those people, but on rewatch I am.
I found a lot more appreciation for Jafaar’s performance in the film, he is truly incredible. I gave him praise originally but I loved the performance even more here.
From beginning to end the film has a momentum that is built through the incredible MJ music. In my original review I said that the film had no interest in exploring Michael Jackson the human being and I (sort of) stand by that. I think the film builds up Michael as this untouchable star so when you get to him being in the hospital you can feel the impact and you can feel him being grounded. Also whenever he’s around his father he changes from a big star and turns into a small child, you can feel the contrast.
I feel like such a bitch for so drastically changing my opinion on this film but here we are. I feel like this because the movie won me over through everything I called it hollow for originally. That’s it, or maybe I’m seeing it through a different lens that made me love the movie. I guess that’s the beauty of movies, we can get different things out a film depending the lens for which we view it from