Another shameless cash grab courtesy of May and Taylor

Rating: 1/10 (27 January 2020)

When Farrokh Bulsara aka Freddie Mercury passed away almost 30 years ago, the band Queen died as well - or did it? No, Brian May and Roger Taylor simply couldn't let go of the gift that keeps on giving, and they have since milked the passing (the so-called "dead star" factor) of their "gay icon" frontman (who never came out publicly) relentlessly. First with a tribute concert "to raise AIDS awareness" (while Mercury and his bandmates had constantly denied rumors about his illness until one day before his death), followed by a seemingly endless stream of "previously unreleased" albums and new variations of greatest hits collections plus live gigs with new lead vocalists. "Too much love will kill you", but too much money apparently won't, right? At least bass guitarist John Deacon displayed some measure of decency when he officially retired after the tribute concert. A biopic was the logical next step in May and Taylor's cash cow approach, and the movie had to be streamlined to be as profitable as possible, which didn't sit well with Sacha Baron Cohen, who had originally been picked to portray Mercury, so he had to "bite the dust".
And for me it's not just the multitude of historical inaccuracies (which have been listed in many reviews all over the media, so I won't mention them here) that ruin the movie, it's also the casting of Rami Malek. Malek looks (or doesn't look) as much like Mercury as a black chihuahua dog would resemble the original Lassie, with Malek's bulging eyes a permanent distraction throughout the flick; and whereas Mercury even in his younger Queen years never looked like a boy and always had an almost malicious sparkle in his eyes, Malek comes across like a little kid with a bad wig (again, no resemblance to the pre-mustache Mercury's hair style) and a ridiculous set of false teeth who's trying to impersonate someone way older and more experienced. Just imagine Malek trying to play Mercury in the middle part of the infamous "I want to break free" video clip, in a tight bodysuit - impossible, right? (But that highly controversial sequence is not part of this movie.)
And while I have to admit that I have really no idea about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's criteria when it comes to handing out Oscars, I think that the trophy for the best actor in a leading role should not go to someone who has only delivered some kind of impersonation. Okay, it most likely wasn't Malek's fault that his role didn't require anything deeper, and if he had raised his concerns about his character's sexuality, he would have probably been replaced, just like Sacha Baron Cohen before him.
But May and Taylor never had any intentions to show the world the real Freddie, someone who, according to his biographers and a barrage of youtube documentaries, almost defiantly kept on partying, etc., in spite of the AIDS scare, until the terrible disease eventually caught up with him. So instead of something that could have ended up being art they produced a string of re-enacted music videos for the typical fanboy/-girl, with a long lipsync finale at the end, Queen at Live Aid. My advice: watch the original on youtube, and while you're there, check out some of the Mercury documentaries, they're much better than this shameless cash grab.