A crime against Freddie and his memory.

Rating: 1/10 (3 November 2018)

First of all, I didn't really want to go. After all that happened with this movie and after everything that Queen members said, I expected it to be bad. Very, very bad. But then I saw all those positive reviews and thought "Hey! Maybe it's actually good? I mean, miracles happen from time to time and I don't want to miss something good based on something as epic as Queen". So, I paid for a ticket. I was a fool...
Bohemian Rhapsody is exactly as I expected it to be. Even worse, actually. And the biggest problem with the movie is the fact that the band didn't want it to be a movie about Freddie. I mean, sure, they're all very talented musicians and it's probably painful to live their lives in Freddie's shadow, even while pretending that the band still exists without him. No matter what they do, the people think "Freddie". So, sure, I can see WHY they didn't want this movie to be all about him. The problem is... there was no other way. The story of Queen is the story of Freddie Mercury. Who, aside from many other things, was a very complicated person. And the only way to make a movie about Queen and Freddie is to focus on Freddie's inner world. The same way that the First Man focused on Neil Armstrong. Remember how people said a lot of bad things about that movie just because it didn't focus on the American flag? But that was exactly why the First Man was so good. It wasn't yet another movie about American heroes in space. It was a movie... about... Neil... Armstrong. Bohemian Rhapsody does exactly the opposite. It turns Freddie into another character of the show. One of the many. And it's one of the things that pretty much ruin the movie.
Like I said, Freddie was a complicated person. A true artist with the unique soul. And without even trying to look deeper into his soul, this movie makes him... well... a freak. Personally, I consider it a crime. Not because I'm one of those crazy fans, but because he deserved more... WAY more than what they did to him in this movie. And it's not about Rami Malek, no. The man is quite good and I hope that this movie will be good for his career. The problem is - writing sucks. Hard. We see Freddie saying and doing things, but we don't have a slightest idea about why. WHY does he do all that? How does he feel? Remember Sully? The movie about Capt. Chesley Sullenberger? Remember what Tom Hanks did there? Sully didn't have any action scenes, the landing sequence was quite short too. The whole movie was about Tom Hanks showing Capt. Sullenberger's feelings in his eyes. Clint Eastwood directed it in a way that we didn't even need words there. Tom Hanks' eyes and the right directing were enough. Bohemian Rhapsody? Nothing like that.
Thanks to an awful writing and the pressure from the actual band, it turned out to be a movie about a group of cool and friendly guys and a freak with a superiority complex who were unable to do the things in a normal way. Meaning, feelings, thoughts, emotions... this movie doesn't have anything of that. It aims for a single thing - a bright and exciting picture. Something that is FUN to watch. A bright picture that shows us funny scenes of how famous songs were made, Freddie saying funny and shocking things to people, etc. Even the gay part is surprisingly dull and shallow. One kiss here, one hug there... No feelings involved.
To make things worse, even though the movie is pretty straightforward, it's full of lies. Very convincing lies that make the band look even more cool. There are characters that weren't even based on actual people, there are scenes that weren't even based on actual events, etc, etc, etc. As the result, the movie feels like a convincing something that was ordered by Brian May and Co to make them look better. And that's exactly why the one should never ever involve the actual people in biopics about them. They'll want things done in their way. And it'll destroy any attempt to make something real. Brian and Co wanted a colorful yet shallow movie full of fiction, in which the cool British guys make a fool out of the EMI executive, who never ever existed in real life, they've got it. Bohemian Rhapsody is sure bright, colorful, it looks amazing, actors are quite good, even though many of them are TV actors, the concerts look shockingly close to the real deal, and yet, it's an awful movie. And the final scene (which is Live Aid, by the way, don't expect any Innuendo depression in this movie) is a nice example why. They've literally re-created Queen's Live Aid performance. They had a lot of time for a long and very expensive Live Aid cosplay. And yet... they didn't have enough time to show us Freddie's complicated soul. I call it a failure. But again, I hope it makes Brian and Co feel better about their lives. Clearly, it's the true goal here.