My wife and I saw this movie at the theatre on Saturday morning. Let me be clear, I’m a big fan of MJ — we both are. I watched live on TV the day MJ introduced most of the world to the moonwalk live on stage when I was about 18, working a night job at my tutor’s sign shop. I’d followed his career even before that. I was not against this movie except for one reason. First, let’s look at some reviews, then I’ll give you the reason I’m now against it. This is why you can’t listen to critics when it comes to movies.

They said the new Michael Jackson movie was trash. They said it was missing too much. They said it didn’t go deep enough. But what they’re not telling us is that this movie actually shows the real foundation of Michael Jackson. From being a kid to signing with Motown and Berry Gordy to linking up with Quincy Jones, they showed the pressure.

They showed fear. They showed how his father controlled everything. And this is the part people miss.

You actually see why Michael became Michael. Why he felt alone. Why he felt more connection with animals than people.

Why he built his own world. That wasn’t random; that was trauma. This movie shows when he finally stood up to his father.

The singing was flawless. The dancing is on point. Jafaar Jackson didn’t just look like Mike — he became Mike.

He had the moves down pat. Yes, they didn’t show everything, but what they did show, they got right.

This movie reminded me of why Michael Jackson wasn’t just a star. MJ was just different! Have you ever heard the term, out of sight, out of mind? You forget things when you don’t see them.

This movie made us remember how great MJ was. Made us remember how much we love MJ. Mind you, this movie shows us there will never be another star as big as MJ.

You can have the debates. You can say, if this person might be bigger. Nah, not bigger.

It’s Mike. And this movie shows every single bit of that. They want you to believe it’s trash.

But it’s not. It’s Mike. And it left us assuming there will be more to come.

This is a mainstream Michael Jackson movie. Nobody is meant to walk out feeling sad or heavily challenged. You don’t want to see him beaten, thrown in a basement, or hanging out with rats.

There’s another dimension where Janet doesn’t even exist. She didn’t want to be in the movie. She didn’t want to give her likeness to it. And apparently, all scenes featuring Diana Ross, played by actress Kat Graham, were removed from the final cut due to legal considerations.

Some of this is a straight-up cartoon. Bubbles might as well have been a Disney animated sidekick. He showed human expressions and mannerisms.

I recently found out that it was executive-produced by John Branca, who’s played by Miles Teller. He became one of the most important people in MJ’s life to this day.

John Branca met MJ in 1980 when he was about 29, and MJ was about 21. MJ was seeking a new direction in management and a new lawyer.

MJ hired him, and one of Branca’s first roles as his lawyer was to help Michael move away from his father’s control over his career. In 1985, Branca was a major player in helping Michael actually buy the Beatles' catalog. MJ purchased the ATV catalog for $47.5 million in 1985, which is crazy money.

And in 1995, Branca played a key role in merging MJ’s ATV catalog with Sony’s Music Publishing. This gave Mike a big stake in the company and major rights. The name Sony Records wasn’t even mentioned once in the movie. We’ll disclose that a bit later.

If you’re a big Michael fan, you know their relationship was far from perfect. Starting in 1990, Michael fired him several times because he didn’t fully trust him, given his work with many clients. Branca worked with big names such as the Bee Gees, the Doors, and the Rolling Stones.

A few weeks before Michael passed in June 2009, he rehired him. In July 2009, Branca helped file Michael Jackson’s will, naming him and John McClane as co-executors of the estate. At the time of his passing, he was over $500 million in debt and faced many accusations.

Under Branca and others, the estate’s value soared. Branca made bold moves like the Michael Jackson Immortal Tour for Cirque du Soleil, the Michael Jackson 1 show still running in Las Vegas, MJ The Musical, and now the movie. Some reports say he has amassed an estate worth over $2.5 billion as a result of these efforts.

Branca has positioned himself as a guardian of Michael’s legacy, both financially and culturally. When I saw John Branca was the executive producer, I knew the movie could not tell the truth about his battle with Sony, his lawyers, the false child abuse allegations, or his untimely death.

Michael Jackson got so powerful with Sony that he found out and then accused his lawyers publicly and Sony of working together because he was becoming too powerful. According to Candace Owens, the American political commentator, author, and conspiracy theorist, MJ kept a list of people in the industry that he said were his enemies. On that list were people who all happened to be Jewish: Music exec Tommy Mottola, a very powerful person in the industry who has connections, according to Vanity Fair, to the mafia. So we’re talking about some people who could do some real harm.

I advise you to read the article “Tommy Boy” to learn about his history. MJ was outwardly talking, even about the things that Mottola had done to Mariah Carey. Plus, Tommy Mottola married Mariah Carey in his life when she was a young, young woman. He was an old man, and there are other allegations about that whole situation. You can look it up on your own.

At an event, MJ told an audience on-stage, “Please don’t videotape what I’m going to say, okay? Turn that off, please.” Then he changed his mind, and the crowd went wild! “No, I don’t mind. Tape it.

“Being the artist that I am at Sony, I’ve generated several billion dollars for Sony. Mariah Carey, after her divorce from Tommy, came to me crying. She was crying so badly I had to hold her. She said this is an evil man. Michael, this man, follows me, she said. He taps her phones. He’s very evil, and she doesn’t trust him. He is a horrible human being. He referred to Tommy Mottola as the devil.

“He said he’s not the kind of person that you want to go to war with.”

“So I’m leaving Sony a free agent. Granger knows, as an HVAC technician, that the heat is on you every day. Your first call is to an office building with a noisy AC unit. Time to put your experience to work.”

He was owning too much. He owned too much music. This man had the rights to the Beatles!

He said, “Sony is trying to hurt me because they’re not promoting my album in an era without streaming as it is now. They botched my album to try to take what’s mine.” I don’t believe MJ was a pedophile. I’m finding out he fought very powerful people with media influence who can make things appear or disappear instantly. Starting in 1993, MJ was repeatedly accused of inappropriate acts with children. Most of us accepted that story as messed up. MJ’s a bad dude! Without considering how the press smeared him for years. The world was told Michael Jackson was an anti-Semite. He was called all those things. They gave him the nickname Wacko Jacko. Many documentaries were made before and after his death.

They smeared him everywhere. The Diddy lawsuit points out that the people who own record companies also own media publishing businesses that print tabloids. They have close ties to those who own newspapers and magazines that publish these stories and to those who make these movies.

That’s how they offer record contracts and get people to the top of the charts quickly. “I could make your grandmother the hottest woman in the country in six months, if she plays ball.”

Many people in Hollywood who spoke out about their experiences have received the same treatment. Now I understand the facts around the MJ case: he went to war with Sony, a major company, and was winning. Then, suddenly, the world was told negative things about him. The FBI investigated MJ for 10 years and found no evidence of criminal conduct. MJ said his biggest regret was settling that first lawsuit. From that one boy, “Now listen to this, I have to tell you this. Okay? So after I left the party, I get back to the Sheraton Hotel at Universal, over here. There’s four FBI agents waiting for me in the hotel room. And my mom’s there, and she’s like, tell them what happened.

“I asked, what do you mean, tell them what happened? I looked at all four and said, are you crazy? What do you think I’m going to do? Tell you Michael did something bad so we can sue him? I looked at my mom and asked, are you serious? What is going on? Why are you letting this happen? She said, ‘I think something happened.’ I said, really? That man was hospitable, kind, loving, and giving. What is this? I asked my mom, are you really trying to go after Michael and use me for money?” The FBI files directly negate that statement. Since then, many artists have tried to speak out about this type of mafia behavior. When people don’t get what they want, they take everything from you and ruin you.

Leaving the King of Pop desolate and broke at the end of his career is a crime. MJ had enemies, likely the same ones who controlled his estate and produced this movie. There are talks of a sequel covering more of his life, but I doubt it will include this. Candace is right, it is an absolute shame what happened to Michael Jackson.

We think of musicians and entertainers as billionaires, like Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and Jerry Seinfeld. Michael Jackson was on a whole other level. I believe he should have been a billionaire several times over.

In fact, no other entertainer comes close. You can’t compare him to other entertainers. The fandom that MJ had and still has can’t be compared to any human being.

You have to compare him to entities like Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. As much as those franchises have movies, TV shows, and theme parks, Michael Jackson is right up there with them. It’s a shame that the same people he fought against near the end of his life now control his legacy and estate.

Here’s the thing: They can lie, steal, and deceive, but they can never create. These people do not have the creator force within them.

MJ was right when he said these people are devilish. All they can do is try to dissuade the masses with lies and go to sleep every night knowing they are liars with no creative force within them.

They will always have to steal from people with talent and lie about those with that creator force. That’s a sad eventual ending for them as well.

And so, MJ, they may have taken your money. They may have, for a short term, impacted your reputation. But there are so many of us in the world who now recognize the truth of what happened to you.

And we have platforms and we have voices too. And we will continue to hold the candle for the King of Pop.

JOIN THE CLUBHOUSE