On Wednesday evening, revelers gathered in the lobby of New York’s Regal Union Square movie theater before filing into the night’s slate of Michael screenings. The King of Pop has become box office royalty after the film moonwalked into the biggest opening weekend for a biopic ever (even surpassing 2023’s Oppenheimer). Now, its success has resulted in even more attention worthy of Michael Jackson’s immense star-power, with videos circulating online of fans dancing in the aisles at screenings and a sequel likely in the works.

However, much like Jackson’s current polarizing force in culture, it’s all a tale of contrasts. The movie’s Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of a paltry 37%, compared with a 97% audience score is a rare chasm. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw was one of many who lambasted the Antoine Fuqua-directed film, saying it was “bland, bowdlerised and bad”, as well as “frustratingly shallow”.

Many fans I spoke to were undeterred. “I grew up listening to him and my dad was the main fan,” said Joanne, a Long Island University college student from Fort Greene, Brooklyn who made the trek to this Manhattan multiplex to see the movie for what will be her second time. “We have all of his CDs, pictures, books and vinyls.”

For the occasion, she was dressed in Jackson’s signature Off the Wall album outfit: shiny black shoes with white socks, accented by a black jacket, white button-down shirt and bow tie. “This was the first time I dressed up for a movie.” Not to be outdone, her friend Tahliah sported a DIY peace sign shirt in tribute to Jackson’s look in his music video for 1995’s They Don’t Care About Us; she stayed up late making it by hand the night before.

“I had to come see it again, because I thought it was amazing,” said Joanne. “I think it’s put together nicely as a starter for fans to get into him.”

Melanie, a resident of Bushwick, Brooklyn, was about to see Michael for her first time and admitted she avoided perusing any reviews beforehand. “I haven’t really been going to the movies since the pandemic, but I came to see this one because of the hype around it and I’m a big Michael fan,” she said.

Others were more dubious: Belize from the Bronx, in line for popcorn, considered buying a ticket for Michael before opting for the Zendaya and Robert Pattinson dramedy The Drama instead. “I was on the fence about it, and what really made me skeptical was when I heard Janet isn’t featured in it because I know they were very close,” she said. (Michael’s famous sister didn’t participate in its production and is entirely left out of the movie as a character).

As the lights went down inside the ‘Screen X’ screening room (a Regal gimmick where the projection wraps around both the left and right walls, purporting to give theatergoers a more ‘immersive’ experience) a hush fell over the crowd. We aptly kick off with the opening chords of his Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ before transitioning into Jackson’s childhood origin story of his early days on the rise with the Jackson Five.

While the audience grimaced when Joe Jackson (played deftly by Colman Domingo) whips a young Jackson despite delivering a successful performance, the first big reaction came when Juliano Valdi, who plays 10-year-old Michael, records lyrics for the first time for Motown legend Berry Gordy. Fuqua drops the music to spotlight raw vocals from Valdi, who so unmistakably sounds like Jackson that the crowd audibly ooo’d at the young actor’s seemingly vocal prowess. They did the same when adult Michael, played by his real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson (Jermaine’s son), sings sounding just like his iconic uncle. There were awws too, like when Jackson instinctively hugs Gordy; he’s one of the first people we see be warm with Jackson.

The film doesn’t shy away from attempting to explain how a young Michael developed some of his bizarre behaviors in adulthood, including obsessions with childhood and its tropes. Instead, the film plays them for laughs. The audience cracked up at the antics of the animals he surrounds himself with, from giraffes to his longtime chimp friend Bubbles. Meanwhile, the closest Jackson comes to any romanticism is when we see him having a heartfelt conversation with a seeming love interest, only for the camera to reveal he wasn’t talking to a person, but a llama named Louie, which also caused the audience to cackle. (All of the animals were reportedly CGI’d in, at great cost).

Jackson is also seen repeatedly reading an illustrated Peter Pan book, an allusion to his future Neverland Ranch with the singer equating his father to Hook, the story’s villain. Meanwhile, Mickey Mouse (stunningly licensed by Disney for use all over the film) appears multiple times, including when Jackson’s attorney (and future co-executor) John Branca, played by Miles Teller, brings a Mickey plush to an adult Michael after he injures himself during his infamous Pepsi commercial mishap.

The movie ends with an ominous His Story Continues title card: it’s been well-reported that the film’s plot strategically halts just short of the latter era of his fame which was largely overshadowed by the child sex abuse accusations and subsequently cast a dark pall over his legacy. With this, the film-makers can portray Jackson as positively as possible; much like a movie of OJ Simpson that ends before the summer of 1994. That wasn’t always the plan: the original cut depicted these allegations, but were cut when film-makers realized one of his accusers had a clause in a settlement “barring any depiction or mention of him in any movie”. Cue $15m in reshoots.

Then again as Dan Reed, the director of the explosive 2019 Leaving Neverland documentary which outlined the abuse, recently told the Hollywood Reporter upon the release of Michael: “A lot of people, I think, will kind of swallow any misgivings they may have and just sort of say, ‘Oh well, it’s a great jukebox movie’ and just completely ignore the fact that this guy was worse than Jeffrey Epstein.”

As the credits rolled and the crowd shuffled out, Andrea from Bensonhurst’s first take was that “Jaafar did very well, but it was certainly missing some things,” she said. “I wanted more, it was long enough to tell the whole story. But I don’t know if I’ll go see a sequel,” she said. “I wanted more, too,” said Shawn, a Flatbush resident who brought his two kids, one of whom fell asleep during the screening. “I grew up with Michael, so the movie could have been eight hours to tell the whole story.”

“You want my honest opinion?” asked David, a journalist who lives in New York, as he left the theater. “I think it’s a profound demonstration of Michael Jackson’s power and influence that people will come to see a movie almost 20 years after his death. I’m happy I saw it and it showed how hard his childhood was. I think generally speaking it’s boring when people are presented in such a positive light. People are complicated.”