Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Review


Bohemian Rhapsody depicts the formation of the band Queen, their success, all leading up to their career high point performing at Live Aid. While I'm not an avid listener, I've always enjoyed the music of Queen, especially when it was featured in Edgar Wright's films ("Don't Stop Me Now" in Shaun of the Dead, and "Brighton Rock" in Baby Driver.) Rami Malek plays Freddie Mercury in a very electrifying performance. He captured the movements and showmanship of the famous rock figure while showing vulnerability in his identity crisis and eventual illness. And the other members of the band are played well by men having a good resemblance to the real members. The highlights were mainly the sequences of them making their greatest hits from "Bohemian Rhapsody" to "We Will Rock You." My favorite was the latter because of this invigorating visual of the audience stomping their feet. That is until we got to the finale involving the band's Live Aid performance and what a great, emotionally satisfying finale it was. I was smiling throughout that whole sequence. I'd like to hear from some people if it truly captured what Live Aid was all about, but in my opinion, it was beautifully well played. On a side note, Mike Myers had a cameo as a record exec who was against the song "Bohemian Rhapsody," feeling it's too long and people wouldn't get into the subject matter. "No one would bang their heads to this," he says. Oh, the irony.

My main issue with the film is the character of Paul Prenter, who was the band's manager and a lover of Freddie. It felt like he was written as an antagonist to bring up some tension between Freddie and his bandmates, whereas in real life it wasn't as black and white as it was made to be. Aside from that and the occasional slow moments in the second and third act, Bohemian Rhapsody truly rocked me. Any fan of Queen should enjoy this and even newcomers. Granted, there are some liberties taken to change around some things, but I felt its heart was in the right place. It's very funny how this movie has been getting mixed to negative reviews from critics whereas the title song had the same reception back when it was first released. But the song and the band who played it had a great legacy nonetheless, and I think this movie is a very good addition to that legacy.

RATING: STRONG APPROVAL (A-)

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