Review of Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) by Rebecca31 — 02 Nov 2018

Bohemian Rhapsody covers the formation of Queen and the life of Freddie Mercury up until the Live Aid concert in 1985. I don’t care if half of it is fiction I still loved it.

Starring Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury), Gwilym Lee (Brian May), Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor), and Joseph Mazzello (John Deacon). The trailer just gives you a taste of Malek’s transformation into Freddie Mercury, he portrayed the icon with energy, charisma and showmanship to perfection. The casting was perfect it just needed a better script and a better director. It would have made all the difference and elevated the rest of the film to the standard set by the actors. Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t really know if it wanted to be the Freddie Mercury story, or the life of Queen. You end up getting a watered down version of both stories, with time constraints it’s not possible to have it all but I still wanted more. More of how Queen wrote their songs, more of Freddie’s life, I found myself wishing this had been a TV mini-series just so I could see more. You also can’t help but feel that a good portion of it has taken some creative liberties and as for giving us an insight into Freddie’s life it doesn’t really get the depth you want. The 12a rating used to bring in a bigger audience is definitely to blame here. In a way a documentary like Amy or Whitney would have been the better way to go but then we’d miss out on Malek’s performance and we can’t have that. With Sacha Baron Cohen dropping out early on due to creative differences and all the other problems that went on behind the scenes Bohemian Rhapsody could have been a disaster. It is getting some harsh reviews due to the supposed historical inaccuracies and yes maybe you’re thinking this review is biased because I like Queen but I was entertained the whole time, I found the chemistry between the main cast to be believable and genuine. The music is spectacular and not only that but the miming was impeccable. Convincing miming isn’t easy apparently just ask the cast of The Greatest Showman. No the film isn’t a masterpiece and it has got some issues but I still loved it. The music and Malek’s performance keep you in the film and during the Live Aid concert it’s electric. You’ll be singing Queen songs for days after seeing Bohemian Rhapsody. Highly recommended, not to be missed and a must see for the Queen fans.