It is difficult to like this movie

Rating: 8/10 (4 November 2018)

I am a huge fan of Queen. I've seen them in concert twice, I had every album, I read every book, and saw every documentary. When I saw this movie I had to separate reality from fiction. Much of this movie is fiction. The fiction made me walk out of the movie initially but the quality and my desire to hear the music brought me back. This is not a true story but rather it is based on a true story. I had to come to this realization. There are so many inconsistencies such as the way Freddie and Jim met, the way he told Mary he was bisexual, Queen didn't reunite for Live Aid (they had just finished a world tour and had only been apart for 2 months and I know this because I saw them), Live Aid wasn't their "swan song". They had two more albums and and more hit songs. In fact, they released Radio Ga-Ga (a top 10 hit) well after Live Aid.
I would have liked for them to have delved into the lives of Brian May and Roger Taylor. It's amazing that Roger was on his way to being a dentist and Brian was working on his PhD in Astrophysics when the band became successful. How many lead guitarist of a mega huge rock band have a bloody PhD?
Freddie was an interesting man. He was a shy introvert who came alive on the stage. He was embarrassed by his overbite and would hide it with his hands or cover with his lips and not smile but yet he was so proud of his overbite because he believed it gave him a four octave voice. He was madly in love with a woman but his sexual desires drew him to men. Even though he knew about AIDS and knew it would kill him, because it already killed a close friend, he still lived a promiscuous lifestyle.
I don't know if Freddie would have liked this movie but I am happy that the rest of the band does. In the end I have come to accept this movie with the liberties taken with the true story. I wish the filmmakers would have acknowledged the liberties taken with the story so that people don't leave the cinema thinking this is what actually happened. There are some good documentaries on YouTube that have the true story of Freddie and Queen. Take some time to watch them instead of depending on a film based on Wikipedia. Condensing 21-years into a 2 hour movie is difficult but others have done it and still stayed true to the story being told.