Bohemian Rhapsody Reviews

Have a lot of appreciation for Queen. Not a favourite band of mine by all means, but it is difficult to not understand their importance and appeal. They had some iconic songs (namely "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Don't Stop Me Now") and Freddie Mercury's immediately recognisable vocals and Brian May's virtuosic guitar playing were always out of this world.

'Bohemian Rhapsody' fascinated me when hearing about it and became most of my most anticipated films for the year. When hearing some negativity for the film, my expectations lowered a little, but saw it anyway because it did look and sound good. It did turn out to be a good decision, it is good to see that others here loved it and don't agree with the mixed critical reception respectfully.

Sure there are clichés (such as what some of the rest of Queen say) , but very few films are not and many are much worse in this regard. Like a lot of biopics, there are inaccuracies that may drive die-hard Queen fans into a frenzy, and the odd factual distortion, but again 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is not the first or worst film to do this and am going to judge it as a film on its own and not on a documentary level.

As a film on its own terms, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' has an awful lot to admire. Getting the issues out of the way, the ones that could have been handled much better was the with the revelation of Freddie Mercury's AIDs diagnosis to the rest of the band, could have been done with more tact and less crass (like saying what it was a consequence of) and revealed too early and at the wrong time, and the implications with the phone ringing off post-taking centre stage that the event was a flop when it actually was a triumph.

Some of the early parts were a touch rushed as well, Mercury's ascent to stardom could have been less breakneck.

However, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is stylishly film and evokes the period beautifully. As to be expected, the songs are incredible and will be embedded in your brain for a long time, then again it is Queen of course. They are affectionately staged and performed in a way that made me remember what made me appreciate Queen in the first place.

Didn't find the script that simplistic or cliff-notes like, while there is a nice mix of moment of laughter, tension and tears and enough parts that entertained and informed, if not as in depth as it should. The story is never dull and the Live Aid depiction is both rousing and poignant. It's capably directed and while all the performances are fine if underused, it is Rami Malek's outstanding turn as Mercury that will live long in the memory, true to what made Mercury so interesting a person and performer without being an impersonation.

Concluding, impressively done and better than anticipated. 8/10 Bethany Cox

To be honest, after this movie had been trashed by the critics, I wasn't expecting much it but since it still turned out to be a huge box-office success, I thought I might as well check it out. The fact that so many people turned out to see this movie didn't really surprise me though. I mean, the Transformers and The Fast and The Furious franchises have displayed that you can make a lot of money with some seriously weak movies. No, what really amazed me was that such a rather weak movie could reach such a high score on IMDb (8.1 right now). Anyway, thanks to Freddie Mercury's incredible charisma, Queen's catchy music and an amazing performance by Ramy Malek, the damned thing was still watchable but there is no doubt that everything else was pretty lame. I mean, basically, right from the start, it was obvious that they wouldn't take any risks so they delivered a really straightforward biopic. Indeed, it seems that the only goal of the makers was to reach most of the milestones regarding this legendary band and it did it without much passion or conviction which was obviously rather disappointing but it was made worse by the fact that they messed up so many real facts about Mercury and Queen in general. The way they handled Mercury's sexuality was also rather bewildering. I mean, they put a lot of time and focus on how he met Mary Austin but his first gay love affair was apparently with some random truck driver in the US? Afterwards, they gave some very short glimpses of gay clubs and parties but it was never properly developed which was rather surprising since the director, Bryan Singer, is gay himself so you would have expected a more convincing approach from him, but, on the other hand, he did get fired from the job before completing the shoot. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn't the worst biopic I have seen, it was still pretty weak but I guess it is still worth a look, if only to witness Queen and Freddy Mercury's awesome charisma and for Rami Malek's stellar performance.

Bohemian Rhapsody isn’t a movie. It’s a regurgitation of Freddie Mercury’s Wikipedia page for a little over two hours. Oh, were you hoping to learn anything else about the other members of Queen? Too bad, so sad, as they’re regulated to Mercury’s merry band of sidekicks (despite whatever limp proclamations of “we are family” that come out of their mouths).

 

It’s tempting to question whether or not Bohemian Rhapsody is a parody of the popular musician biopic. So much of the film is presented in as sanded off, dulled, and literal a manner that you wonder just how this thing has transformed into a blockbuster. It’s certainly not the pedestrian director or eye-roll inducing script, but if it’s some of the editing choices, Rami Malek’s central performance, and the soundtrack then things start making sense.

 

This is a film that documents the rigors of touring by having Freddie Mercury say his goodbyes from the stage as neon letters of various international cities zoom past him. I cringed as that scene played out, and I cannot imagine how anyone looked at it and thought it passed muster. It isn’t just that, but a vague sense that his father’s replayed mantra is going nowhere by about it’s third utterance and a self-negation in Mercury’s own queerness. There’s joke a plenty about Mercury being a hysterical queen, but the main gay relationship that gets screen time is one that’s incredibly toxic and juxtaposed with the warmth and support of his heterosexual one. Gross.

 

So, leave it to Malek’s performance to provide any kind of effusive praise I can manage for this thing. It’d be too easy to write it off as simple mimicry aided by solid work from the makeup and costume departments, yet there’s several scenes where Malek is called to really act and invest a multitude of layers to what’s happening. Malek’s working in an artful manner in a film that’s merely happy to shallowly entertain and provide a reductive approximation of rock and roll’s greatest frontman. Just listen to Greatest Hits, Vols 1 and 2 while skimming the Wikipedia page for approximately the same level of enjoyment.

The songs, not the movie; the character,not the actor (a bit difficult for me to accept his false maxilar protuberance); but some themes are sharp and clear, the woman he loves but is not his sex choice as the policmena is; the group and the frustrated soloist adventure.....