Review: 'Michael': Soggy Michael Jackson biopic has its electrifying moments

To answer your pressing questions about Jaafar Jackson, who plays his uncle Michael Jackson in the biopic "Michael": Yes, the resemblance is uncanny. Yes, he can really act. As for his dancing: You’d swear the King of Pop himself had sprung back to life.

The rest of the movie? Like the singer’s career and legacy, it is decidedly mixed.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, "Michael" has all the problems you’d expect in a music biopic produced by Graham King ("Bohemian Rhapsody") and by the Jackson family. It burnishes the singer’s reputation by endlessly lauding his genius, artistry and humanity. It gets the period details right, thanks largely to Marci Rodgers’ vibrant costumes, but adds few new insights. It traffics in old tropes, notably the overbearing father (Colman Domingo as Joseph Jackson) and the supportive mother (Nia Long as Katherine Jackson). It also invents a pitfall: Visible prosthetics that distract from the fine work of Domingo, Long and Miles Teller (as attorney John Branca, who comes off as the smartest guy in any room and who just happens to be a producer here as well).

But then there’s Jaafar Jackson, in his film debut. Though he’s almost outshone by a soulful Juliano Krue Valdi as an even younger Michael (in his Jackson 5 days), Jaafar captures the vulnerability and loneliness of the man who would be King of Pop. He’s mortified but excited to get his first nose job. He spends his time and money weirdly, playing Twister with his pet chimp, Bubbles (an obvious CGI creation). Jaafar’s best scenes find him quivering before Domingo, who, though saddled with fake eyebrows and colored contacts, vividly portrays Joseph as both a heartless abuser and a dedicated family man. (The screenplay, by John Logan, is not without its nuanced moments.)

While making the "Thriller" video, Michael advises director John Landis to capture the dancing with full body shots, and Fuqua ("Training Day," "The Equalizer") wisely follows suit. Jaafar’s dancing is electrifying — every pivot, pirouette and pop-lock is executed with ferocious grace. The making of the "Beat It" video (featuring members of L.A.’s rival Crips and Bloods gangs) feels slightly oversimplified, but Jaafar storms through a live performance of "Bad" that just might take your breath away.

Worth noting: "Michael" is actually a hopeful Part 1 that ends in 1988. That leaves a potential Part 2 to address such unpleasant subjects as opioid addiction, dubious marriages, the infamous child-dangling incident, what appeared to be serial plastic surgeries and, of course, repeated allegations of child sexual abuse. That sounds like a heavy lift.

For now, this "Michael" is upbeat. Its best moment is Jackson's debut of the moonwalk at the Motown 25th Anniversary celebration, broadcast May 16, 1983. An illusion of forward momentum that somehow pulled the dancer backward, the moonwalk seemed to defy reality. In other words: It was magic. After Jaafar gracefully slides across the stage, Fuqua cuts to the face of a kid in the crowd, eyes lit up, goosebumps almost visible. Even today, after everything we know, Michael Jackson can still turn us into that kid.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com