Glossy and Colorful but Emotionally Shallow

Rating: 5/10 (23 March 2019)

Freddie Mercury and Queen finally get their big screen moment, after years in development hell, and the end result is more than a little overcooked. If there were a blueprint for making a safe rock biography, this would trust it like a Bible. It's so superficial and emotionally bland, I felt like I was watching a troupe of actors recite from the group's Wikipedia entry, with a few last-minute ninja edits tossed in to twist reality.
Everything looks polished and, of course, the soundtrack is spectacular, but it's tough to get excited about passive storytelling and a supporting cast that's, frankly, quite boring. I kept wondering if Brian May and Roger Taylor, the two original band members participating in the production, were too involved in how it played out. It's Mercury's story, of course, but the rest of the group is handled with such kid gloves that it's almost laughable. The worst thing said about Taylor is that he wrote a silly song about his car for the first album. Not that I'm looking for gossip, really; the whole thing is just so vanilla that a little grime and conflict would've gone a long way. Even when they're at-odds for a brief stretch near the climax, nobody's feathers seem terribly ruffled.
Glossy and colorful but emotionally shallow, Bohemian Rhapsody goes to great lengths to achieve mannequin-like visual authenticity, but pulls every gut punch.