Disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (7 November 2018)

Disappointment. That's the word floating through my head after watching this movie. As a casual Queen listener I wasn't very familiar with the band members or with Freddie in particular, except for the obvious - that Freddie was a flamboyant performer, was gay and died of Aids. And after watching this movie I can't say I now know a lot more about Freddie than just that. Yes, I do know now that Freddie actually had a girlfriend before coming out of the closet and that he was a very lonely man - something portrayed very good in this movie. But there is just not a lot of depth in the character. And don't even get me started on any of the other band members. I feel like I only got to know their names.
This movie just jumps from one significant moment to the other. Oh, now Queen is recording this popular song. Oh now Queen is recording that popular song. Oh, now Freddie is suddenly gay because he looked a trucker straight in the eyes. There's just not a lot of story going on. It all feels like fan-service. And that's the conflicting thing about this movie. I did enjoy watching it, but looking back I realized that that's mainly because of the killer soundtrack. And to me, that's just not enough to make a good film. I also felt like the editing was a bit over the top at times. When showing just regular conversations there were cuts every second, which is just annoying.
Fortunately, the soundtrack isn't the only good thing about this movie though. There's some cool camera movements, it has some humor and Rami Malek is great as Freddie. His costumes were as crazy as you would expect. My favorite part of the movie however is the final Live Aid performance. It's acted great, the music is fantastic and at times it's even emotional. The fake crowd was a bit distracting though. But even though it was my favorite part, I can't stop thinking about how it was also kind of unnecessary, which may sound strange. I mean, if I wanted to see the Live Aid performance I would just look it up on the internet and watch the real thing. The filmmakers could have used those extra 15 or so minutes to actually create characters and an engaging story. It's a shame, because now were left with an empty shell of a movie. A movie with potential, but a bad execution. Queen deserves better.