A lot of flash for a little substance

Rating: 5/10 (31 May 2019)

Taron Egerton's performance is superb in Rocketman. If only the film surrounding it matched up to it.
I felt a real identity crisis from this movie: did it want to be a run-of-the-mill biopic of a popular musician or a jukebox musical with a framework story depicting his life? In trying to tow the line between the two and committing to neither, it threw its tone completely off course and failed to live up to either.
I also would have accepted the spoke/sung song moments if I also got full performances of some songs, but there were verses or full sections cut from almost every song that was done as an Elton John performance.
It's unfair to routinely compare this movie to Bohemian Rhapsody, but given that director Dexter Fletcher seems to be returning to his own playbook for this film, the comparisons seem apt. There are several moments which seem copied almost word for word and line for line from BR (anything with the manager and business dealings, for one), and the trajectory of the musicians' careers and lives within the queer community seem almost cut and pasted from one to the other.
Ultimately, this is not a bad film. It just seemed to be simultaneously trying too much unconventional material and playing the same old game to become satisfied with the film.
(This is all to say nothing of the moment when Elton is performing in full Dodger regalia and blasts off like a literal rocket man.)