A solid movie, an untrue biopic, and a mediocre drama

Rating: 6/10 (28 November 2018)

Let's get the obvious out of the way, Freddie Mercury and Queen were great. Almost all of their music is classic, and they are forever rock legends. This movie did have a strange and possibly daunting task of representing such a unique man on the screen, and it did pull it off thanks to decent writing and a great performance by Rami Malek. With that out of the way, on to the actual review.
Bohemian Rhapsody has a lot going for it. The final Live Aid scene is fantastic, both the music and the performance. Rami Malek shines and the music is very moving. The music throughout the movie conveys the emotion of the characters fantastically (probably because it was written by them) and they do a very good job with Freddie. His character has to balance upon a razor. Move one way, and he becomes a comical gay stereotype. Move the other, and you may lose what was great about Mercury. I'll say it again, Rami Malek made this role successful.
There is much that stands out for this movie, but the catch is that as with many biopics, a good amount of what stands out can be attributed to what happened in real life. In my opinion, the filmaking itself is only decent. There is nothing wrong with it. The lighting, sound design, production, and everything else is alright, but there isn't much in my memory that stands out as above and beyond or incredibly creative. There is the shot near the beginning when Freddie walks out on stage with his arms outstretched, and even that isn't what I would consider to be fantastic. The mediocre production isn't my biggest gripe with this movie however, that would be it's identity.
I can't understand whether this movie really wants to be a biopic or a drama. Yes, movies can be both, but there is a difference in which you put first. This movie changes many facts in favor of a compelling story. Some changes I understand, such as Freddie revealing his AIDs before Live Aid, even through in real life he was diagnosed years after. This compresses time and allows the movie to end on a moving scene that truly captures Freddy Mercury. Other changes only exist to create drama. The band never had a true break up as they did in the movie, and making solo albums was never a huge deal, other members of the band did it first. These take it from a biopic to a drama. However, I don't necessarily have a problem with this. It's alright for a movie to sacrifice truth in favor for a compelling story. A good example is The Social Network, a fantastic movie, not so much a true-to-life biopic. The movie sacrifices truth and non-bias for a fantastic story and characterization. The Social Network isn't about Facebook, it's about someone's need to succeed and what that costs him, and it's done beautifully. Bohemian Rhapsody is simply a mediocre drama. Besides the music and performances taken from real life, it doesn't bring anything new to the table. It's not bad, just average as far as averages go.
This movie is never a bad movie, but strays from the truth in order to create drama, and said drama is simply average. However, it is very fun for any Queen fans, and I will never be opposed to giving this movie another watch.