Great Success!

Rating: 9/10 (8 November 2018)

The film about legendary singer and performer Freddie Mercury and his band Queen is here, which follows his life personal transformation alongside Queen from its origins in the early 70s with the formation of the band and its identity and all the events that led up to their Live Aid performance in 1985 at the peak of his musical career. The film shows the origin of Freddie Mercury as an artist and his inspiration and creation for arguably his greatest hit Bohemian Rhapsody and his drive and passion to try to innovate and create something people have never heard before, as well as the pushback he received from so many critics and record dealers, which showed the true nature of Queen of always doing it their way and knowing what the audience wants, and giving it to them.
The film in a lot of ways does feel like A Star Is Born with the simple origins of a worldwide celebrity with Freddie and his fearlessness to achieve and experiment. How the inspiration behind some of their greatest songs started as small ideas that anyone could have of come up with at the time like the idea of audience interaction and foot stamping which became the riff of We Will Rock You which again innovated the band and rose it higher, in a way making it a pioneer of audience interaction when Queen performed live. Any band at the time could have done what Queen did, the only difference is that only Freddie and the band were passionate and daring enough to do it. It also showed how Queen was family to him and Freddie never had the idea of being a solo performer, it was him and the band which were unbreakable.
His sexuality is also clearly portrayed in the film as well as the relationship he had with Jim Beach and later became his partner, how critics slammed Queen's innovation and people started to leech of Mercury's fame and eventually the events that lead to his diagnosis of AIDS, and instead of letting it destroy himself and Queen, transformed himself into a beacon of hope worldwide with his legendary Live Aid performance as well as the legacy he left behind for AIDS research.
I was sceptical at first when I saw this was being made. I have been a fan of Queen's music for a long time but I never really knew that much about the personal life of Freddie Mercury as well as the other members of the band apart from his music and sexuality. Just from the trailers it had a feeling of being rushed with a cheesy tone, not being completely faithful. After seeing it though I really do think it did everything it possibly could have done to stay true to long-time fans of Queen as well as educating people like me who still don't know that much about him as a person as well as successfully conveying and emotionally engaging biopic with near perfect casting. The film also has great cinematography, direction and is shot beautifully, as well as incredible music. It will arguably become the greatest biography film of the decade alongside The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything and is in my top 5 for the year. Definitely see it. Great success. Queen will live on forever!