Bohemian Rhapsody Review
Tori DiPasquale
The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is described as “a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury” by Twentieth Century Fox. I have to say, it truly is a movie that’ll make you want to get up and sing along to Queen’s fantastic catalog of hits.
First, I have to give you a disclaimer that I am, what some may call, a gigantic Queen fan. But, I am also a very harsh critic when it comes to movies, so I hope to give an unbiased opinion on this biopic.
The movie is mainly about Freddie Mercury’s life. It takes you through his early twenties up to one of his final concerts before he passed away in 1991. You get to see the formation, dismantling, and reformation of Queen as their career goes on through the seventies and eighties. Going into too many details of the plot would spoil the movie, mostly because the movie’s plot doesn’t have that much detail.
This brings me to my main complaint about the film overall: It was made with very little details about their career. I believe they did this to make the film accessible to everyone, and not just insane Queen fans like myself, but in doing this they have taken away part of the experience for those fans. As I was watching I kept finding inconsistencies between stories I had heard from previous interviews and books I had read and the stories retold in the film.
For instance, in the film there is a character who denies Queen the ability to have the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” be a single for their album. This person never existed. It’s not really a valid point of criticism, but they’re fabricating stories when they don’t have to. Queen’s true stories are all incredibly interesting and I don’t understand why they weren’t used.
There was also a montage that will live on forever in my mind as the most useless scene ever to be put in a movie. They are attempting to show how Queen invented new ways of recording, which they did, but they don’t explain even one method shown in the montage. It is basically the trailer, just thrown into the movie.
My last main complaint about the movie is that there was not enough of Queen’s music in it. I expected to hear old tracks, new mixes of old songs, and just a good section of their vast discography. Instead, I got only the really famous hits including “Somebody to love” played multiple times where they could have put in another love song (Queen made dozens). Having just the hits does make the audience who may not know Queen feel more involved, but if they included more underground Queen songs, it may have expanded the audience’s horizons on what songs Queen really made.
These things aside, the movie was really fun. Rami Malek gives a fantastic performance as Freddie that everyone left the theater talking about. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins a couple awards for it, because he truly was the Freddie Mercury everyone knows. I think everyone has heard “We will rock you” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” so once those songs came on everyone in the theater started tapping their feet and humming along. I think that’s what the film wanted to accomplish, not so much an artistic masterpiece but something people can truly enjoy, which is what Queen wanted to do with their music, as well. It takes you through Freddie’s and Queen’s career using amazing costumes, classic music, and hilarious dialogue. Overall, if I had to rate the movie from 1-10, I’d give it a 6/10. I have my complaints, but overall it left me smiling, and I think that’s the sign of a pretty good biopic.
First, I have to give you a disclaimer that I am, what some may call, a gigantic Queen fan. But, I am also a very harsh critic when it comes to movies, so I hope to give an unbiased opinion on this biopic.
The movie is mainly about Freddie Mercury’s life. It takes you through his early twenties up to one of his final concerts before he passed away in 1991. You get to see the formation, dismantling, and reformation of Queen as their career goes on through the seventies and eighties. Going into too many details of the plot would spoil the movie, mostly because the movie’s plot doesn’t have that much detail.
This brings me to my main complaint about the film overall: It was made with very little details about their career. I believe they did this to make the film accessible to everyone, and not just insane Queen fans like myself, but in doing this they have taken away part of the experience for those fans. As I was watching I kept finding inconsistencies between stories I had heard from previous interviews and books I had read and the stories retold in the film.
For instance, in the film there is a character who denies Queen the ability to have the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” be a single for their album. This person never existed. It’s not really a valid point of criticism, but they’re fabricating stories when they don’t have to. Queen’s true stories are all incredibly interesting and I don’t understand why they weren’t used.
There was also a montage that will live on forever in my mind as the most useless scene ever to be put in a movie. They are attempting to show how Queen invented new ways of recording, which they did, but they don’t explain even one method shown in the montage. It is basically the trailer, just thrown into the movie.
My last main complaint about the movie is that there was not enough of Queen’s music in it. I expected to hear old tracks, new mixes of old songs, and just a good section of their vast discography. Instead, I got only the really famous hits including “Somebody to love” played multiple times where they could have put in another love song (Queen made dozens). Having just the hits does make the audience who may not know Queen feel more involved, but if they included more underground Queen songs, it may have expanded the audience’s horizons on what songs Queen really made.
These things aside, the movie was really fun. Rami Malek gives a fantastic performance as Freddie that everyone left the theater talking about. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins a couple awards for it, because he truly was the Freddie Mercury everyone knows. I think everyone has heard “We will rock you” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” so once those songs came on everyone in the theater started tapping their feet and humming along. I think that’s what the film wanted to accomplish, not so much an artistic masterpiece but something people can truly enjoy, which is what Queen wanted to do with their music, as well. It takes you through Freddie’s and Queen’s career using amazing costumes, classic music, and hilarious dialogue. Overall, if I had to rate the movie from 1-10, I’d give it a 6/10. I have my complaints, but overall it left me smiling, and I think that’s the sign of a pretty good biopic.