Rami Malek leaves you wondering what Bohemian Rhapsody could have been...

Rating: 6/10 (5 December 2018)

I walked into the cinema with little expectations. I had seen the lukewarm (not bad) reviews from critics and expected to be disappointed, but found myself mildly interested by the end of it. Let's get one thing straight; this is not a good movie. I give it 6/10 because it had all the right ingredients to be a good movie, and for the most part it was, but it chose to gloss over crucial details that I've now come to learn and that causes the movie to fall short.
I had no interest in Queen prior to watching this movie. I knew of their hits because, let's be real here, who doesn't? But I had no idea who the band was or what their history was like until I'd seen this movie, and keeping that in mind, for no longer than a second did I believe anything happening on screen. The rest of the band is painted with the lightest of brushes. Their every word and action makes it seem as though Freddie was this egotistical rockstar who threw them back and forth with his escapades and they were silent little lambs who were subject to his poor choices, and I didn't buy it for a second. After looking up the band and doing very, very, very little research I was able to see through all the tales the movie tries to spin. Dates are changed, lies are told and important details glossed over in favour of the mess of a meal the director serves to us, and by the end of the movie it felt more like a work of fantasy than a biography.
This movie's saving grace comes in the form of a scene stealing Rami Malek. His performance is electric. With a longer than two hour running time, there wasn't a single moment that I found myself bored watching Rami channel this flamboyant rock god bravura. Without him, this entire movie is nothing but a supercut of superficial moments in a great bands history.
I wouldn't watch this movie again, but I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it because, if nothing else, it's extremely entertaining. I just wish they'd given us the bitter truth instead of this candy coated shallow piece of work.