So, I saw the new Michael biopic last night ahead of its release on the 2026 movie calendar and had a blast. Honestly, it was like a two-hour non-stop rundown of greatest hits, but the film stops at an unexpected place, so I wasn't surprised when the critics had strong opinions about the way the biopic makes them feel. I was surprised, though, about what exactly the complaints mostly centered on.
While I thought people would have been complaining more about the timeline — Antoine Fuqua's movie takes the pop icon’s career only into the late '80s — the real complaints had far more to do with how the movie dove into Michael Jackson himself. There’s a lot that works, The Wrap’s William Bibbiani writes, but with no mention of the sexual abuse allegations he faced, the movie presents an incomplete and inaccurate narrative. The critic writes:
