Poorly written, Bohemian Rhapsody is a disappointment

Rating: 1/10 (11 November 2018)

Sometimes there's a movie that really divides critics and audience. Sure a movie about one of the most iconic person of Rock (and music in general) should make Bohemian Rhapsody one of them, and it does. Honestly, the movie it's not bad -not totally- but it is messy. The structure is messy, the timeline is wrong and the characters are more selfaware than they need to be, but more on that later. It felt like they wanted to make a love letter to Queen, but the structure wasn't even nearly satisfactory as it should be, resulting in a Russian Roulette of cheap emotions and an unclear message by the end.
Rami Malek is good as Freddie Mercury, reproducing several peculiarities of the original artist, but for me his acting was more of a series of impressions (a caricature) then a true representation. Don't get me wrong, it's still very good and very unique, but I've seen another Biopic this year (First Man) and by comparing the protagonists, I feel that Gosling's Armstrong is more of a "character" then Malek's Freddie and I don't know whose fault it is. Anyway, great casting too, I honestly want to know how they rejuvenated Brian May and taught him to act so fast. But even with a cast almost identical to the original band, the movie restricted everyone so they could make Freddie the absolute main character.
This and other things are totally the screenplay's (and the people who wrote it) fault. And there's some Bryan Singer there too. The movie paints Freddie as a legend, a god from the first to the last frame, never letting us empathize with his character, his struggles or his wins. We're humans, the movie needs to humanize its protagonist so we can sympathize with him. The film even has a "bad influence" character so we could put all of Freddie's faults on him, what a shame. It seems like every single person involved with the band (except that one producer) was aware of what Queen means today. They're always convicted
that they would be successful, talking and acting this way, at least it's how the story shows us. The screenplay also manipulates time and events to fit the narrative created to the movie. Rock in Rio was in 1985 with a very well know Queen, not in '79. Freddie discovered he had AIDS in 1987 and definetely did not use it as "plot point" to empower the Live Aid performance, and he didn't was the first to go solo too, making an entire scene insincere. Propably one of the most poorly written scripts of the year.
I honestly don't know where it's totally Bryan Singer's fault or some kind of Studio's censorship, but this movie is flat in emotions. Everytime the band argues about something there is a miraculous riff that saves the scene and in the next one everything is alright, they have a new song to perform. Unfortunately, not even an inspired Rami Malek and the Live Aid performance reproduction (which was cool) could save the picture. Makes me wonder how Sacha Baron Cohen wanted to make it. Probably he wanted to make a true Biopic of Freddie's life, not just a stack of exposition scenes.Probably he wanted to make it right.