Lost opportunity!

Rating: 3/10 (7 December 2018)

The moment I saw the film's title was Bohemian Rhapsody I knew it was going to be shallow. It is not the worst bio pic ever, some good points are, of course, the music and the decent
sensible way they portray Mercury's sexuality and the AIDS problematic. The band characters made a good work at lip syncing the shows, the main actor also does a good job with his performances, despite the fact you can tell he's not singing (when you lip sync you have to actually sing with your mic off, because people can tell if you are just moving your lips without air even coming in and out).
The entire first half of the film about the formation and early success of the band feels off. Mercury was quirky, charming and honest. However the film character was a weirdo who already spoke like a super experienced rock star from the get go, but had no charm or attractiveness, to the point of feeling a bit scary. The rest of the band were portrayed as nothing special. They pointed out repeatedly how misfit and rebel they where, but they just looked like 3 nice small town lads.
The second part was more of a typical children's film where there is a villain who lies and confuses the main character and makes him betray his real friends. He eventually finds out, unmasks the villain on a rainy night, and goes back to his friends for forgiveness. That's alright if they wanna play safe, but at least do it in a way where you can actually convince the audience emotionally and show some depth or uniqueness to the piece. One good thing about this part is that Rami Malek is finally on point with a believable character.
The way they come up with the hit songs is just so laughable. It takes away all the weight of those anthems, and turns them into Ohh let's play with the bass and Ohhh all of a sudden we have a hit riff or Yeahhh let's have some audience participation. The only song where one can feel a transcendent connection with the moment of the character is Who wants to live forever. Beautiful part.
Where is Bowie? Where are the naked waiters in lavish parties full of cocaine? Where is the struggle to succeed? Where is the confusion of fame gone out of control? Where are the geographical adventures? Where are the real disjunctives of life? Come on, it's the 21st century and we are still scared of showing some disturbing human rawness? That's what happens when the bio pic has to be authorised by the remaining band memebers...