Solid entertainment in the second half of the movie, but not much more. Overall bland and flat, Mercury and all the Queen deserve much better.

Rating: 4/10 (7 November 2018)

First of all, some people here - the most fanatical fans of Queen - have to stop writing two-sentence reviews, like "genius movie, Oscar for Rami Malek" & give 10 stars, because this is what makes the review biased and dishonest. I'm also a fan of Queen and Freddy himself, but the same time I graduated film school and I love cinema, that's why I also like to be as objective as possible in my reviews of movies. Here I will try to make my criticism honest, substantive, and not too long (so that everyone wants to read it).
Yes, sometimes professional film critics are deliberately malicious, and their opinions are detached from reality, but sometimes they are also right, and in the case of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', this is the second.
The film distorts a lot of facts from Freddy and Queen's life, and if these were unimportant events - I would not care at all, but these are important things and especially in a biographical film this should not be done, just to make the movie more dramatic. Fred's life was dramatic enough, if only the creators of the film really wanted to make an interesting movie, they would go even deeper into Mercury's childhood and the fact he escaped with his family, against persecution, from his own homeland. And this in turn could be the starting point / foundation for a deeper, better portrait of the Queen singer.
Unfortunately, there is no depth here, the worst part is that this film is schematic, completely flat, only glides over important topics, does not carry out any serious psychological analysis of such a fascinating, complicated character that Freddy was.
I don't accept excuses of the most fanatical fans of Queen (who cannot come to terms with the fact that many critics / reviewers, very rightly criticize this movie), that "this is the story of the band and not Mercury himself". Because firstly, one does not exclude the other: it was possible to include in the scenario a deeper analysis / truth about Freddy and the band, and secondly the band's history is also poorly told. The best moment of a rather boring, long-lasting, first half of the movie is the recording of '' Bohemian Rhapsody '', a humorous accent with a rooster and Galileo. The rest is a fast, also quite jumping and chaotic montage of musical scenes depicting, carelessly, subsequent tours and writing of individual hits, and while I understand that in a 2-hour movie it is not possible to show each creative process in the smallest detail, it was still possible to show it better from the pov of the characters - band members, thus also build better and deeper characters in this film.
The second half is better, I admit, both in terms of pace and in terms of writing/story, and the icing on the cake is the Live Aid concert, so really the edn. The performance, photos, acting of the main actor is at the highest level in this scene, unfortunately it is not enough to save this movie from failure.
Malek's acting, imo, certainly doesn't deserve an Oscar nomination. He tries his best with an empty and schematic scenario, and the writers / director's mistakes are not his fault, true, but Oscar is an award for outstanding acting performances, which are not limited to robotic mannerism, it must be accompanied by the psychological, emotional depth of the portrayed character, and there is no such depth in this film, in this main character. The only really emotional scene that attempts to penetrate into Freddy's soul is the scene of conversation between Fred& Mary, first at Fred's house and then in the rain. It is here, that Malek's creation is the truest and the best.
Unfortunately, when we look at this role through the prism of the whole film, majority of Malek's work is the mentioned mechanical mannerism - perfectly recreated- but it is not enough to rate this role positively, let alone reward it with an Oscar nomination. Imitative mannerism, gestures, faces alone - it is only a skeleton, an acting sketch, especially in a biographical film, and not a full, beautiful, complex image, which should be any biography. There is simply no soul in this act, and it's just a crime if you play a figure as extraordinary, colorful and complicated as Freddy Mercury.
In addition to the obvious mistakes of screenwriters and director, Malek himself (for me), does not rise to the task. Sometimes he is just Mercury caricature, and large, artificial teeth don't help to erase this impression, in fact, the opposite. The make-up department didn't do good job here, famous teeth of Queen frontman could have been done better, much more subtly, it would look less ridiculous. Returning to Rami Malek - he is still a young talent who - like any actor - needs more workshop and acting experience, plus really good material, to really shine. That is why I predict Rami Malek will not win an Oscar.
I still think that the great mistake of the Bohemian Rhapsody creators, was to part ways with Sacha Baron Cohen. When I found out that he had left Mercury's biography project, I felt it was a big mistake from film producers, because I was sure Cohen wanted to tell an uncompromising, interesting story, not forcedly smoothed , and it seems, my intuition did not disappoint me then. Cohen, a remarkable & colorful character like Freddy, would have fit in perfectly in this role. In addition, after hearing the interview, in which Cohen told why he finally left the movie and what vision of Mercury he had - I regret even more that it was not him who played the Queen main singer. People, who can't stand Cohen (they don't understand him) say it's good that he was replaced by Malek, because Sacha supposedly only meant/wanted controversy and scandals, that he would show Freddy only as crazy sex addict, taking drugs and nothing else. However, all of this are just primitive attacks, not supported by logic.
Whoever saw 'Borat' and really understood the message behind it, knows that Cohen is an extremely conscious and intelligent actor / artist, at the same time, I will repeat: extraordinary like Freddy. He is a master of imitation, a master of using various accents, a great actor and, additionally, he can sing very well - which he showed in his role in '' Les Misérables ''. Cohen's strengths don't end there, because physically, with stature, he is much closer to Freddy (who was a well-built man) than frail Malek, has naturally dark eyes and hair, and with a bit of characterization, I have no doubt that he could have been the most wonderful Freddy Mercury. What's more, if he was allowed to do what he wanted with this role - to portray Freddy as a complicated, controversial figure, with a great appetite for life, but also a great artist who mixed the big ego with great sensitivity and shyness - I have no doubt that it would be a great role. Now it's just a missed opportunity.
As a result, we got schematic, "polite" movie, ironically - because Freddy Mercury, as well as the entire Queen, were as original, unapologetic and creative as you could be and deserve much better. Sorry, but real Queen fan, who wanted raw, real, complex, deep, uncompromising truth and story - just cannot like this movie. Mercury and all the Queen story has so much potential (wasted in this movie), which is weird to say and how it all turned out, considering living Queen members were involved in this movie. Sorry guys, you did awful job. I guess I'll just wait for another movie, bold and great this time, I hope.