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• Sensibility: Dialogue on the whole is extremely artificial, disturbing both immersion and enjoyment. In addition, the creative sequences are derivative and simple to the point of stupidity.
• Cinematography: The highlight of the film is obviously the soundtrack and sound design, but most of it's merits come from Michael Jackson's work and not the film's. Production design on the whole is excellent. Some shoddy cgi, particularly around animals, some strange editing choices that drag unnecessary scenes on and take away from more interesting ones, and some repetitive shot making all take away from the film.
• Energy: Great imitation performances and sound are the highlights of a film which lowlights are unfortunately everything else.
• Narrative: It's almost shocking how little substance this story contains given the breadth of source material the entire Jackson family offers. The film labors over the same father son dynamic but does so in a simple and artificial way that grows tiresome quickly and saps it of any meaning. The interactions between characters are so simple that characters are reduced to caricatures. The film proceeds in an almost hapless way, events just happening without real structure or plot driver. Worst of all is that all this lack in substance is met with an ending that almost punishes you for watching this far: you have to come back and see a sequel for the rest.
• T-Points: The film received three bonus points: one for a great moment from young Michael in the Jackson 5 playing to the crowd, one for a great rendition of Michael's all-time Billie Jean performance, and one for overall great recreations of Michael Jackson's choreography.

A major disappointment on the whole. The narrative is so lacking throughout and the film's portrayal of Michael's creative process takes away from his creative genius rendering it unrealistic and aimless. If the goal of this film was to engender favor for Michael's character to grease the wheels for some of the darker elements/realities of his story to be captured in the next film, the film failed miserably. The film is fun and energetic like Michael Jackson's music, but isn't much more than that.

Number of Watches: 1