I wonder if he's related to my good friend Percy Jackson

 

I never intended this blog to have so many movie reviews, but turns out watching a whole movie is slightly easier than reading a whole book. I hope to have other things to write about soon. Like my three new umbrellas. Or my three and a half new pairs of socks. 

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Michael (2026) - directed by Antoine Fuqua

 

This movie is how I know I’m not qualified to be a Rotten Tomatoes critic, since I’d give this a 🍅🍅🍅🍅 I’m so biased towards feel-good content. 

The story itself is nothing to write home about; it feels so anticlimactic and unfinished. But what it lacks in structure, it makes up for in style. The music and the visuals and the giraffe and the outfits made me happy. Michael has many good jackets, and one thing about me is that I’m a fan of jackets. 

They left out my favorite song 😫 how will I know if Annie is okay??

 

Watched: June 3, 2026

Rating: ★★★★ / 5  

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I remember seeing the Michael trailer and having no interest in watching this movie. And then I saw the Rotten Tomatoes rating and had even less interest. But just look at this disparity:

It seemed like the people were having a great time and I wanted nothing more than to have a great time. So I watched. And then I listened to Michael Jackson for the next two weeks. 

Michael relies on nostalgia and its funky tunes. It's a generally inoffensive movie and it leaves off on a feel-good note, and I think that's why so many people, including me, liked it. 

But I did watch this movie with the critic rating in the back of my mind, trying to understand it. I expected the movie to feel more overtly flawed, even if I enjoyed watching it, but there was nothing egregiously wrong to me. The acting was decent. I don't know anything about cinnamon-tography but the visuals seemed nice as well. What else does movie need? I've seen movies that feel a lot messier than this one fare way better on Rotten Tomatoes (my love, Mickey 17). 

My guess (because I haven't actually read any critic reviews): instead of an overarching story, it felt more like a sequence of events strung together by great music. The movie also just ends, without anything feeling resolved. It covers only half of Michael Jackson's career and seems to hint at a sequel (perhaps that movie will be called Jackson). But it's a biopic, right? Real life is not always thematically cohesive like that. I guess a movie's job is to not only put this story on a screen, but also give it a thematic through line, and Michael really only does the former. 

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I took a bullet train recently, and it was way less interesting than Brad Pitt would have you believe. Acceleration smooth. Very impressed, but not enthralled.