Is this real life or is it just fantasy? Caught in the landslide of biopicnosis

Rating: 6/10 (7 December 2018)

As an average Queen admirer who watches the epic Live Aid performance on repeat and listens to the Greatest Hits album (both part 1 and 2) as a daily routine, my expectations were relatively high when I watched the trailer. Those expectations lowered once I peeked at some of the reviews and audience responses. I live in Japan, where Queen has arguably their most loyal fan base (that should've been mentioned in the film); and are still showing the film in big theaters. I watched the film today, with moderately low expectations, and I walked out of the theater asking myself the opening lines of the eponymous song. Honestly, I felt pretty mixed about this film. The production value was undoubtedly high: all the sets (particularly the Live Aid set) were pretty accurate. Rami Malek's detailed performance of the legendary singer was quite good and so was the other supporting cast (particularly the other band members). Listening to the band's greatest hits in the theater was comforting, but I would have enjoyed it more if the filmmakers used the actor's voices, at least during the live sequences. The most disappointing aspect was the overall narrative botched by all the historical inaccuracies. While I'm not against biopics that take some liberties with the truth for an effective dramatic narrative; this is quite disrespectful to Freddie Mercury and to the band. The two most glaring liberties this film took was Queen breaking up only to reform for the climactic Live Aid performance and the portrayal of Freddie's homosexuality. Although Live Aid was seen in real life as sort of a comeback for Queen as rock gods, I thought the idea of having the band in the film go through the clichÃ©d breaking up-to-come back again plot was cheap. Personally, the climax should've been the recording sessions of Innuendo-that's a touching story of a tight knit band. In regards to the portrayal of Freddie's homosexuality, I understand it's a difficult issue to tackle since very few people knew who he really was in his private life. However, the film portrays Freddie as guilt-ridden and somewhat forced into it by Paul Prenter, his Judas (in real life as well)-that's pretty offensive. What's more disappointing is how both Brian May and Roger Taylor as well as Jim Beach served as producers for this film-which also means that they had authority over the story and facts. It is ironic how May and Taylor fired Sacha Baron Cohen because they felt the biopic should be more about the band rather than Freddie-yet the majority of this film is Freddie. All I can assume is they either didn't know Freddie well enough, or they simply couldn't care less about the facts and were concerned about finishing this project in time. Overall, this film is like listening to The Greatest Hits, but with no appreciation and respect to Queen.