Spike Lee slams 'complaining' critics of Michael Jackson biopic

Spike Lee has defended this year's Michael Jackson biopic against "complaining" critics.

The Oscar-winning director revealed he'd already watched the movie "twice" as he launched a spirited defence against criticisms the film failed to depict abuse allegations against the late singer.

The timeline of Michael, Spike argued in an interview with CNN this week, only took the Bad singer's up to 1988 - several years before allegations first emerged that Michael had sexually abused children.

"First of all, if you're a movie critic, and you're complaining about the stuff... the movie ends at '88," Spike, 69, told the outlet.

"The stuff you're talking about, accusations, happen (later). So you're critiquing the film on something that you want in, but it doesn't work in the timeline of the film."

He also described Michael, who died from cardiac arrest caused by an overdose of the sedative Propofol in 2009, aged 50, as a visionary whose creativity went beyond the obvious.

"When you're a great artist, you see stuff before it's even happening," the Do the Right Thing filmmaker gushed.

"I feel it's a gift, a God-given gift, and you're in tune with the universe... These guys, and women, they're on a different wavelength."

In April, Bloomberg reported the movie originally included several scenes that directly referenced accusations Michael had molested minors with whom he had both lived and worked.

However, producers were forced to scrap the final third of the film after realising that the terms of one of Michael's alleged victims' settlements stated they could never be depicted in any future commercial project.