A Near Flawless Disappointment

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2018)

This may have been the best a PG-13 commercial film about Queen could have been. I say this both with praise and disappointment. Praise because, despite a few obvious flaws, this film was incredibly entertaining. Disappointment because although the quality seems to have on the surface, it lack internally, failing to capture the true spirit of Queen, especially it's main member Freddie Mercury.
This film stars Rami Malek (known for his leading role in the TV series, Mr. Robot), playing the lead role of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the widely popular band Queen. It chronicles the band as it first shows when Freddie first got the part of lead singer of Queen, to the creation of their songs, to Freddie's lifestyle, which eventually led to him contracting AIDS, ending on the band's legendary performance at Band Aid in 1985.
Despite some obvious criticism that I will later get into, coming out of the theater I am still overjoyed that they decided to make Freddie Mercury's life into a biopic. He had an interesting life. Going from a pakistan teen with buck teeth to the multi millionaire icon singer is an exciting rags to riches story. His life also includes tragedy when he was first diagnosed with AIDS, which led to his death at the age of 45, showing yet another star who left us all to soon. This all adds up to an interesting story.
This film definitely has it's great aspects. Most notably, Rami Malek in the role of Freddie Mercury is electrifying! His presence is always felt on screen, through his iconic look, way of speaking, catchphrases (Darling is one), and body language. He shares the same presence on screen as Freddie did on stage, really adding depth to the character. I then find it likely that Rami Malek will be nominated, if not win, the oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role coming next Oscar season.
The film also includes a fair share of comedic moments, mostly coming from the dialogue. The characters in this film always seem to have something to say at always the right time. Look at this set of dialogue for an example:
Brian May: That's a nice fancy dress, Fred.
Freddie Mercury: I've got to make an impression, darling!
Brian May: You look like an angry lizard!
It's the light hearted dialogue like this that helps make the film entertaining and enjoyable to all.
Yet another aspect that really made this film stand out as something great was how it portrayed the live performances from Queen. It's in these concerts that all the elements come together and work. Almost magically these concerts communicate, triumphs for the characters, humor, powerful emotions, and all let's the camera work truly pop. Being this is a biopic of as popular of a band as Queen, the film has a wide variety of great music to use, and how creatively did they use it! The music always seem to heighten all the elements to create real movie magic.
Despite how many things this film gets right, and I do admit this to be a well made movie, there are some considerable flaws. One being the pace. For a film dealing with decades of strong detailed material, two hours and fifteen minutes seems almost too short. This definitely shows, as the film seems to jump around from highlight to highlight in the band's career, never going in depth into the events. Another major flaw with this movie, is the fact that it is a PG-13 commercial film. This majoraly hinders the film, as it seems to gloss over all the sex and drugs that had an impact on Freddies life. I then find it quite interesting when considering that this film was originally meant to star Sacha Baron Cohen (Famous for portraying the raunchy character Borat) and that it was meant to have a hard R rating. Some people however feel that this kind of biopic would be problematic and not have nearly the amount of wonder as this film did. Although that is certainly possible, I feel that by actually portraying Freddie Mercury how he was it would have humanized all the more, giving more weight when it affects his life, and add depth to where it was lacking before.
I can't help but think back to a scene in this film where the song Bohemian Rhapsody was first shown to a music producer. The dialogue was as follows:
Ray Foster: It goes on forever, six bloody minutes!
Freddie Mercury: I pity your wife if you think six minutes is forever.
Somehow I feel as if the same situation happened with many of the producers of this film, rejecting anything risky that could affect how much money this film made. Instead of doing something daring and exciting, like all of Queen's music did, filmmakers decided then to stick with something much more conventional and in the process did not encapsulate the spirit of Queen.