Best way I can summarize this film is that I tapped my foot a lot, but don’t feel that I learned anything.

“Michael” is the story of singer Michael Jackson’s, following his start as a child performer in the Jackson 5 to the peak of his fame in the 80s. Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson portrays his uncle, while Nia Long, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Miles Teller and Colman Domingo also star and Antoine Fuqua directs.

Like most people in the world, I like Michael Jackson’s music, though I never really went through a phase of binging it. Biopic films aren’t meant to be documentaries, creative licence is always a given, however “Michael” is a film that chooses to do the bare minimum and go out of its way to offend no one, and in doing so creates a film that feels far too pedestrian for a figure that was so larger than life, even if the music throughout will have you boogying in your seat.

As his uncle, Jaafar Jackson does a good job portraying Michael’s childlike demeanor, and the ambition masked behind a layer of timidness. He nails Michael’s dance moves and issms, even though the screenplay doesn’t give him much to work with emotionally. Colman Domingo (wearing heavy prosthetics) has a decent amount of scenery to chew as Michael’s abusive father/manager Joe Jackson. There are a few fleeting moments throughout where the dynamic between Joe and Miichael is explored, like Michael refusing to meet his father’s eyeline during rehearsal or twitching when he enters a room, but it isn’t anything deep. Other big names, including Miles Teller, Laura Harrier, and Nia Long, all feel like glorified cameos.

The music is the real selling point here, and that obviously delivers. Whenever I see a music biopic I always come away thinking “I didn’t realize how many songs of that person I actually knew,” and MJ certainly had enough big hits to fill a movie twice over. It is welcome when the beat to “Beat It” kicks in or we visit the set of the “Thriller” music video, but the way other songs of his are used feel so random (some scene transitions will be by songs of the era, while other times we still get Jackson 5 hits playing in the 80s). The best scenes of things like “Bohemian Rhapsody” are when we see the band struggling to put together a new song, when suddenly one member will riff on a guitar and the other will join in, and suddenly a hit is born. “Michael” only has one scene like that, while MJ is humming while hanging index cards on a board; the rest of the time we just get him performing or his manager talking about how big of a success one of his albums was.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a somewhat divisive film, one that critics and film Twitter criticize for its poor editing, hollow depiction of events, and central charaticture performance, but audiences loved for its music segments. “Michael” will likely be enough for fans to overlook its flaws, too, but we need to return to the days of movies like “Straight Outta Compton” and “Walk the Line,” where the energy radiates off the screen, the musicians feel like three-dimensional characters, and things don’t just play like a rundown of a Wikipedia page (even things like “Rocketman” and “Elvis,” while cliche in their narrative structure, don’t shy from the uglier side of their subject and have an extravagant, almost dreamlike style about them).

“Michael” didn’t make me upset, and I never really felt like things dragged (until the third act, which makes sense seeing as they had to reshoot the entire thing after the Jackson estate realized they couldn’t legally depict the 1993 accusations made against Michael). Jaafar Jackson does right by his uncle and the music is good, and for some people that will be enough, but it is a shame that the most famous celebrity of all-time, who was such a character, gets such a safe movie about his life.

Critics Rating: 6/10