'Bohemian Rhapsody' is a great bad movie. Queen is brought to life in an entertaining clunker of a bio-pic

Rating: 5/10 (28 March 2019)

'Bohemian Rhapsody' is a victim of it's genre which is a very specific genre. It is an Oscar bait bio-pic designed with the same beats to get the same responses. At it's most base storytelling level 'Bohemian Rhapsody' could have really been about any rock and roller singer with it's rags to riches to redemption rinse and repeat storyline. This can be both frustrating for a viewer and immensely entertaining. Maybe I'm coming from it from a cynical point of view but I had a good time with 'Bohemian Rhapsody' as it is entertaining in a bad clunky way. The whole thing is a carefully manipulated as it seems as if every single line of dialogue is exposition for an audience the filmmakers not only assumes knows nothing about Queen but also cannot follow this story without plot points being blatantly pointed out. They actually have the gall to include a scene where Freddy Mercury watches a television report that explain the symptoms of AIDS to us...
It works despite it's self as Remi Malek is outstanding in the title role and makes the film immensely watchable. The film tries to do too much. If the last act about preparing for Live Aid had been expanded into a feature length film I think we wouldn't have fallen into the cliche traps I mentioned earlier.
The chief draw to the picture is the music of Queen which is still is electric years later. I wonder how much of the film's staging works just because the music is so good. It would be legitimately interesting to recut the film with the iconic Queen music replaced with drivel. I honestly don't know if it would be salvageable. For what it's worth I liked Malek and I loved the music and I laughed at the bio pic formula. It isn't intelligent or deep storytelling but seeing this fictionalized Queen put together their hits after strumming a few chords in a jam session will put a grin on your face.