It's light and mostly okay, but could have been great

Rating: 6/10 (13 February 2020)

It's not surprising to me that Bohemian Rhapsody was a hit. Queen have always been a popular and well-loved band, and even if some consider it overplayed, the song this film is named after is undoubtedly iconic and quite the musical achievement. What does surprise me is just how much of a hit this was, raking in something close to a billion US dollars worldwide and earning several Academy Awards. If I'd watched it before the hype, I'm sure I would have found it a solid yet potentially unmemorable music biopic and then moved on, only to be surprised when it got the kind of acclaim, box office results, and awards attention it did.
It also puts me in a position where much of what can be said about Bohemian Rhapsody has already been said. The criticism when it comes to some aspects of this film have been extensive, so I will briefly say that I agree with many of them. A harder edged look at Freddie Mercury would have been much better, because the film can only scratch the surface when it comes to his lifestyle, partying, and the various partners he had throughout his career. The pacing is a little too frantic, and some scenes are put together in a rather gimmicky, blunt manner (the biggest offender for me was the press meeting scene, where Mercury becomes overwhelmed at all the repetitive questions being thrown at him; it was filmed and edited in a way that I thought would look tacky in a student film, let alone a large scale Hollywood production). Then there's the whole matter of the surviving band members' involvement, including speculation that they wanted to tone down any edgy aspects and also make themselves look good in the process (oh! And give the actors that depict them more screen time. I think a lot of the clunky filmmaking and editing choices come down to those surviving band members wanting to increase the amount of time their personas were in the movie. This creates an awkward sensation where Bohemian Rhapsody is something in-between a Freddie Mercury biopic and a Queen biopic, but failing to truly excel in either regard). And then there's the matter of historical accuracy, which is ignored in some areas, but is far from an unforgivable sin for the most part, as far as I'm concerned.
Rami Malek was highly praised for his depiction of Mercury and to be honest, he was good? But not fantastic. I think the fake teeth did a lot of the acting for him, and giving a good impression of a well-known historical figure certainly takes skill, but I'm not as blown away by what he did as many seem to be. Everyone else in the cast ranged from just okay to decent- there weren't really many standouts.
The soundtrack is fun but it's Queen, so what else would you expect? Additionally, Bohemian Rhapsody is thankfully not boring; I guess a positive aspect of the frenetic, exhausting pace is that the film is never given the opportunity to drag. It's really the Live Aid concert recreation that saves this movie, and in the end, I almost wished I was watching that for two hours instead of the rest of this movie... which I still can't say is terrible. That concert recreation is a decent pay-off, and the movie is somewhat engaging and with a good (still not great, in my opinion) lead performance at its centre. It just failed to move or entertain or shock or make me think much beyond that. It's a perfect lazy Sunday afternoon movie, but beyond that, include me among the people who otherwise don't really understand what all the fuss was about.