Bohemian Rhapsody Review

PG-13: Thematic elements, suggestive material, drug content and language20th Century Fox, Regency Enterprises, GK Films2 Hrs and 14 MinutesDir: Bryan Singer | Writer: Anthony McCartenCast: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, Mike Myers
The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound. They reach unparalleled success, but in an unexpected turn Freddie, surrounded by darker influences, shuns Queen in pursuit of his solo career. Having suffered greatly without the collaboration of Queen, Freddie manages to reunite with his bandmates just in time for Live Aid. While bravely facing a recent AIDS diagnosis, Freddie leads the band in one of the greatest performances in the history of rock music. Queen cements a legacy that continues to inspire outsiders, dreamers and music lovers to this day.
Like the iconic musician he portrays, Rami Malek’s performance as Freddie Mercury is fun, energetic, and filled with utmost charisma. That Mr. Robot boy is going far and this film is that well-adjusted leading performance that leaps him to superstardom. He exquisitely captures the essence of Mercury from the look to the voice and, most importantly, the movement. Freddie Mercury was a bombastic man and Malek’s performance is nothing short of being bombastic. Even when it comes to the vocals Malek hits a huge high note. His voice is so unbelievably in tune with Mercury’s that, when it gets to the climax, you get part of the rush of being at an actual Queen concert.
So, one of the earliest rumors that I heard about the film which made me fearful going in is the absence of Freddie’s bisexuality. I’m glad to say that’s not the case. They express his queerness. His sexuality is present in the film. They openly show how Mercury had many lovers until he contracted AIDS. Well, those are all of the positive things I have to say about this!
On an ironic level, one of my favorite scenes of “Bohemian Rhapsody” is when Queen is at an EMI record executives’ office and the band members are arguing with the executive for abiding by a formula, where the executive says, “What's wrong with following a formula? I like formulas.” The reason I point this scene out is not because of the fact that it's poorly written, but the entire speech itself following a formula is relative, for it is exactly what “Bohemian Rhapsody” does from the time the film starts until the time it concludes. This movie does nothing but follow the same formula that every music drama movie ever has followed without any form of substance or identity.When the movie starts, it dives headfirst into an acid vat of cliches. Tell me where you’ve heard this before:A boy who is an outcast from the world loves music and joins a bandThe band gets picked up by a labelThe lead singer has a big personalityEvil agents and record producers are detrimental to the leadHis ego causes the destruction of the band’s relationshipLead singer realizes he was a jerk and gives generic apologyBand gets back together
We’ve seen this story countless times, but sometimes it’s done so much better because of a distinct narrative aspect and characterization of the leads. For one of the most unique bands of all time they’re given such a fucking bland narrative. The only thing that makes “Bohemian Rhapsody” stand out is it’s humor and even then that shouldn’t be the only thing we should latch on to when dealing with a Queen (let alone a Freddie Mercury) movie. Moments of comedy occur very often and it’s so odd. The only personality the film has is comedy and, while it is entertaining, the identity and the values of the band it depicts are stripped down of anything to be taken seriously.For a 2 hour and 14 minute feature, the biopic moves so fast and glosses over every single event in this band’s career. Nothing about Mercury is really explored at all. Yeah, you get a sense of his sexuality and some of his characteristics, but that's it. All Rami Malek gets to do in this film is impersonate Freddie Mercury. As I said, Malek is incredible, but the muddled script prevents his portrayal of Freddie from being captivating. This is a man of mystery and an extravagant larger-than-life personality, but the film avoids displaying any of his complexities. There are potential moments that could’ve been explored such as Mercury's sexuality, his queer awakening, his whitewashing, his namesake, but instead of going in depth with any of them, the movie just sweats bullets and runs the other way as if it was too afraid of confrontation to be distinct. As I said, his bisexuality and some of his characteristics are present and that's it. Just because you present all of the known aspects of Freddie Mercury doesn’t mean you fleshed him out as a dimensional person.
I didn’t want to be the Black critic to pull out the “Straight Outta Compton” card but... fuck it. I have to. With “Straight Outta Compton” being a biopic that focused on the lives of every single member of this ensemble music group, F. Gary Gray managed to flesh out the musicians and deliver an impactful message about society. It had something to say beyond just being a regular music drama. I went in only knowing who Dr. Dre and Ice Cube were and walked out knowing the entire crew by heart. Here, I went in only knowing who Freddie Mercury was and left only knowing Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, who is the only other member to exhibit any form of personality. Speaking of, Ben Hardy (who portrays Taylor) gives the only other standout performance. He is the only member who you see closely working with Mercury and rightfully calls him out on his bullshit when his ego is out of control. The bandmates are the supporting characters to Freddie’s story, and while that is sort of the point since this is essentially the Freddie Mercury movie, all the members needed to be fleshed out because the lead singer isn’t the only thing larger than life about the band. You know what? I’m going to say it. Bryan Singer, you fucked this all up.If you’ve read and followed the rough patches the film went through during pre-production, the palpable inconsistencies onscreen make more sense. This movie wasn’t just directed by Bryan Singer, but also the cinematographer when Singer wasn’t on set and Dexter Fletcher when Singer was fired. A lot of the cinematography choices are hella questionable and you can tell who directed which scene. Some scenes are darker than others and desperately needed to go through some color corrections during post, for you’re unable to see anybody's face in several sequences. There is a sequence where Freddie throws a luxurious party at his enormous mansion and you’re not immersed in the lavishness of the scene because the room is too dimly lit. And don’t tell me that it’s for the aesthetic when I know good and well that it wasn’t. There are so many poor filmmaking choices and it’s a huge detriment to the feature overall.
You are able to detect the neglect of the project all the way through and it pisses me off. “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been in development since 2010 and many actors dropped out because the script was too lame. The band members themselves, who were part of the development process, were too fearsome of the movie ruining Mercury’s legacy. Sasha dropped out because the script wasn’t up to par with his standards. Ben Whishaw, who was signed on for a time, dropped out because the script was subpar. AT THAT POINT, THE SCRIPT SHOULD’VE BEEN FUCKING FIXED! All that happened instead was they ended up with too many cooks in the kitchen trying to finesse a burnt meal. You end up with a basic, run-of-the-mill rock band story that does nothing but hit checklists as the movie goes on. If Bryan Singer was more responsible and brought his fucking A-game during production, we wouldn’t have this lame script on our hands, the cinematography wouldn't be so imbalanced, and scenes wouldn't be so poorly spliced together including the musical cues. All of the scenes where there should be emotional impact are either absent or feel artificial. This movie fails on all fronts that it doesn’t appease anyone. Even if you’re a hardcore Queen fan who’s going in for the music, it's sad to say that it fails to playing with your nostalgia.
They give all of these iconic songs the most generic build ups. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of the greatest songs of all time and when it came to how the song was constructed, they treat it like it was just another song made in a recording booth that casually came together perfectly. That applies to every notable Queen song featured. What was the story behind this song? Nothing. They just made it and boom! it was a hit. There are moments of visual splendor but they don't really add any dimension to the story. There's a flashy montage of all the places around the world the band travels to and, while it is pretty, it’s nothing remarkable so you’re there thinking, “Oooh they traveled to places?”
I was going to say that the film’s finale where the band plays at Live Aid is incredible, but I can’t admit it without pointing out that half of that sequence is filled with a bunch of reaction shots of the same several people on a loop. FUCK, MAN! Bryan you fucked up AGAIN. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a mess and you let it die only to have Dexter Fletcher, who was too busy working on his own music drama biopic “Rocketman” (which looks dazzling), finish up something you failed to complete. Fuck you, man. I got nothing else to say. When the movie based on ABBA’s music is better than a movie based on the music of Queen, FUCKING QUEEN, you know you fucked up bad.Let’s get Myan’s opinion on this, since she specializes in music and watched this with me.
The guy who plays Brian May looks a lot like Brian May so that was a stellar casting choice. Rami Malek did the best he could with what he had. Ben Hardy is great. Everything else was so painfully underwhelming I don’t even care to talk about it. What a shame.Go watch “A Star Is Born” again instead. “Shallow” alone made me more emotional than the entire Live Aid concert sequence combined. Yikes.
Something about Mike Myers, who rocked out in a car listening to “Bohemian Rhapsody” during the opening scene of “Wayne’s World”, being in a Queen movie entitled “Bohemian Rhapsody” is poetic. It’s like a niche joke that comes full circle and it would’ve been amazing if the movie didn’t make a meta joke about it in a scene where he tells the band that nobody is going to like the song.Also, while Myers is unrecognizable physically, you can still tell it’s him because once the man opens his mouth, all you hear is:
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is the fast food of music biopics. It looks delicious in its advertisements, but is ultimately tasteless and leaves you with nothing but dissatisfaction. Rating: 1.5/5 | 36%Super Scene: Live Aid Concert