Mercury, and Malek, Deserved Better

Rating: 5/10 (14 October 2019)

Bohemian Rhapsody is a mess of a film that disrespects its inspiration and comes off as a cheap attempt to draw Academy attention. The average movie-goer will be disappointed by a bland and one-note story that creates a cheap narrative out of an interesting life story and fans of Mercury will be even more frustrated by egregious inaccuracies that serve to only lessen the impact this film could potentially have had.
Bohemian Rhapsody follows the rise of the world-famous rock band Queen, leading up to their performance at Live Aid in 1985. Specifically, the movie focuses in on Freddie Mercury and his relationships. This ends up coming off as insincere, however, given the extreme liberties taken with the reality of this complex man, instead reducing him to a character. Even on a cinematic level, it feels as though everything was thrown at the wall just to see what would stick. Weirdly experimental shots seem to only attempt to draw praise for being "creative" while serving no legitimate purpose. The piss-poor sequencing and editing added to the jumpiness of these scenes. Some of this can also be blamed on the tasteless set design that does nothing to place the audience in the world of Queen nor the time period, save for a short section set on a farm (that was entirely made up). Thankfully, the costume design is not quite so boring, but does, at times, come off as unnatural, especially with the appearance of an unrecognizable Mike Myers cameo that is a bit too much of an on-the-nose reference to Wayne's World.
Its glaring faults aside, Bohemian Rhapsody is not a complete failure by any means. Most of the shots still look good enough, if overly dramatic; the performances are a tour de force of choreography, though often put to the side to continue the infuriating plot; and the acting was quite good all around, aside from a disgustingly overacted Mary Austing by Lucy Boyntown (though this may simply be due to a horrid script). However, the real saving grace of this film is Rami Malek. Despite all the drama surrounding the behind-the-scenes of the production, Malek is able to pull off the impossible and save this movie from a truly negative impact. Malek is not acting like Freddie Mercury, he completely embodies the person and all of his mannerisms. It is spine-chilling to see all the effort put into flawlessly recapturing the magic of his stage presence. Still, this is not enough to correct for every mistake made on every other level of production. Bohemian Rhapsody comes off as a stale, uninspired of a man with an amazing story, sidelining a band with an equal amount of potential to be drawn on. The unfortunate reality though, is that Queen will never receive the depiction they really deserve without the talent of Malek as Mercury.
Bohemian Rhapsody Letter Grade: D+