Meh

Rating: 5/10 (19 May 2019)

So I just saw an advanced screening of Rocketman and I have very mixed options about the film.
To get the positives out of the way, I thought that Taron Egerton did a Fantastic job as Elton John, nailing both the personality and appearance. Jamie Bell also gave a solid performance as John's lyricist Bernie Taupin. All of the other performances were decent as well. The dialog wasn't bad or cringeworthy, with the exception of executive Dick James. Nothing was done POORLY necessarily, but I will say if Egerton was not in this film, I probably would have rated Rocketman a 4/10 or even a 3/10.
Let me get into all of my issues with this film.
Firstly I need to mention that Rocketman is a musical, where moments of his life or feelings are related to John's many songs. I only feel the need to mention this because I feel the marketing was very misleading, convincing people that Rocketman was going to be a more conventional biopic. Now, the musical moments are done badly, but for a feature film that is about a REAL person and story, it doesn't fit well. What the writers and director were trying to go for would have made a better broadway show, instead of a theatrical release. There are also WAY too many of these musical-style moments, particularly in the final third. And to clarify, by "musical" I'm referring to a film like Moulin Rouge.
I also felt like Rocketman glossed over a HUGE amount of events In John's life such how he recorded his first few albums, how he wrote songs with Bernie, etc. They could of included a scene of Elton helping John Lennon overcome stage freight or any other interesting stories during Elton's golden era, but Rocketman flashes forward to the start of his career to when he starts to descend into drugs. The most important part of his career is pushed to the side. Another example of this involves John's wife. We don't know who she is, how she knows him, or even her name. The actress is literally given around 6 lines. So when her three minutes of screen time are up, and you find out her and John have divorced, you don't care because you learned nothing about her.
Also, going back to the musical aspect, some inaccuracies end up being raised. Like how Elton wrote Saturday's Alright for Fighting at 12 (which he didn't). I also question the idea of everyone he knew, save Taupin and his grandma, were so harsh and mean.
Overall, Rocketman isn't an awful film by any means, and with Egerton's performance and the Your Song scene, I can still recommend this to extreme John fans. Otherwise, wait to rent.