A brilliant capture of Freddie, although accuracy would have made the movie great

Rating: 2/10 (2 January 2019)

Freddie's character and actions were captured expertly, even if his story was not.
This movie's primary conflict was Freddie vs himself, or Freddie vs Paul. This arc is shown quite well, allowing us to sympathize with Freddie's misguided actions and his true desires at the same time. However, this arc is fully completed with approximately 45 minutes left in the film. This forces the story to rely on a secondary arc, Freddie vs the band, but that arc also ends with 30 minutes remaining. The film then turns to a tertiary arc, which is Freddie and Jim, or Freddie vs his parents. By this point, we are so far removed from the primary climax that this tertiary climax feels like the movie is truly dragging on beyond its boundaries. But there is *still* 20 minutes left after this third arc is completed. The result is that the Live Aid concert feels exactly like watching a concert. Most of the emotional attachment has ceased long ago, and while watching Freddie perform is fun, there is no reason to include it in a film unless there is an emotional reason to do so.
So how do you invoke an emotional response from the Live Aid concert? The answer is extremely simple: show what actually happened.
In reality, the second arc, Freddie vs the band, is *entirely fictional.* Now, this movie needed a secondary conflict since the primary conflict ended so early. One band member selling out is an extremely common trope for the music genre, but it can be forgiven if it actually happened. However, that did not actually happen for Queen. The band continued to play live shows, and they even had to cancel some of their regular shows to attend Live Aid. There was no hiatus and no internal conflict. Including this cliched arc can also be forgiven if no other conflict actually occurred, but that is also not the case (which I'll discuss after a couple paragraphs).
I propose that the movie should have been made by showing the truth. Freddie vs himself, the primary arc of this film, should become the minor arc. It will occur first chronologically, but it is still the secondary arc. After that is complete, the completion of the tertiary arc, Freddie vs his parents, can then occur, or it can be removed completely since it is not known to be a true event. Finally we reach the primary arc of the film: Queen vs the world.
In reality, most people had forgotten about Queen before the Live Aid concert, and that concert reminded them that they actually enjoy Queen. Without that concert, Queen may have gone down in history as a successful band during its time, but also a band that could not live up to the rock legend status that they still have today. This concert was the life-or-death conflict for Queen, and it absolutely should have been the climax of the movie. Removing the band argument scenes leaves room for scenes showing the band's decline. Perhaps they perform at concerts that are only half full, or nobody in the crowd knows the lyrics to a popular Queen song, or they are rejected for a new record deal. Just as things seem hopeless, their manager pulls every last favor he has to get them a spot in Live Aid, and the band knows this is their final chance. Now instead of going into the concert emotionless, the viewer is filled with tension hoping that the band's performance is a success. Then the show begins and the crowd starts to remember how they love Queen. They sing along and get active...
The movie also said that every band got 20 minutes, which is another false fact. Each band got 15 minutes, but Queen played for 20 because the crowd loved them so much. Even in the film's version, there is no reason to leave this fact out because it only serves to make the band look better.
... Then once their 15 minutes is up, they begin to walk off stage. The crowd begins chanting "Queen! Queen!" and the concert director tells them to get back out there. BAM! That's an epic climax with the crowd's love as the conclusion. Now the final 5 minutes of the concert is all the "wasted" time in the movie, and it feels like an excellently satisfying ending rather than the 45 wasted minutes at the end of this film's original script.
I believe it is absolutely inexcusable for this movie to show such poor screenwriting ability when the best script is simply a historically accurate depiction of events.