"Style" made the "substance" less affecting for me..

Rating: 6/10 (31 May 2019)

*I give it 6.5/10*
*This is LONG. I have a lot of thoughts*
To start off, I'm not much of a fan of musicals - other than a select few that I've loved since childhood. And I'm also not a fan of the fantasy genre. But I wanted to watch this and form my own opinion of it because I am a massive fan of Bohemian Rhapsody, and Rocketman has been compared to death to it, so I wanted to give it a fair chance and see what all the fuss was about. I'm going to review it in sections to make reading it a bit easier. It's very long, especially where I compare it to Bohemian. (Although I adore Bohemian, I do wish that some things were done differently, but it doesn't keep me awake at night like it clearly does for some people.)
TARON: His acting was great! I found that it was even better in the second half when the storyline turned darker & more dramatic. I don't really know much about Elton John and haven't seen much archival footage of him, but from reviews, it sounds like Taron had Elton's mannerisms down and really inhabited his character. Also, I gotta say...Taron's voice is beautiful. It has an interesting quirkiness to it at times but he can also belt out when necessary.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Considering this movie is based around Elton's issues with addiction and self-hate, I felt like we didn't get to see an in depth build up of his inner turmoil. It kind of seemed rushed, like certain people treated him poorly and he was frustrated/hurt and then suddenly he was an addict. I wasn't emotionally invested in that aspect of the story, which is its core focal point. As for other characters, some were very underdeveloped and their impact on Elton didn't have much of an impact on me.
SCRIPT: There were some cringy moments where I found the writing was blatantly weak/awkward.
EDITING/FLOW: It made the story feel disjointed at times. Sometimes I felt like the transitions from regular scenes to musical scenes (and vice versa) were clever and flowed well, and sometimes they didn't and felt messy. This is also where some of the fantasy moments just didn't work for me.
COMPARISONS TO BOHEMIAN & RAMI: 1) One thing I think is super unfair is how people are using praising Taron for doing his own singing as an opportunity to throw shade at Rami for not singing in Bohemian. First of all, Rami actually did sing. He took singing lessons and "sang at the top of his lungs every day" (a direct quote from him). For the people who didn't pay attention, you could see his neck and throat muscles flexing during the performance scenes. And then in the editing room they blended Freddie's voice into his with the result being mostly Freddie that came through. Second, no one can replicate Freddie Mercury's unique four-octave range, which is probably the best voice in all of rock history. Rami simply didn't have a good enough voice to pull off a convincing performance of a rock legend, whereas Taron already had the gift of a great voice BEFORE Rocketman. It's not as if he learned to sing for this movie. That was an advantage Taron had when getting this role, but it doesn't mean that Rami has now become less worthy of winning his Oscar. I've seen a lot of user & critic reviews saying "if Rami could win an Oscar for lip-syncing then Taron is more deserving because he actually sang". An actor's performance in a music movie is about more than just the voice. Both Rami and Taron's roles were about immersing themselves fully into the person they were portraying through mannerisms, body language, overall essence, etc. Think of it this way, if Taron sang but he didn't deliver a convincing performance in the acting department, the singing aspect wouldn't have mattered.. so the reverse can also be true and was the case for Rami...his actual voice wasn't audible to us on screen but his acting was great and he delivered a convincing performance in other ways.
2) People have slammed Bohemian for having inaccuracies in timelines and facts... well Rocketman does too. Both movies took creative license in order to compress 20+ years into 2 hours. I don't get why people couldn't handle that when it came to Bohemian but can seem to overlook that for Rocketman. These movies aren't documentaries, they are products of Hollywood and the entertainment industry.
3) Considering things I read in reviews about the "level of gayness", and its R-rating, I expected to see some pretty graphic stuff. But that just wasn't the case. I live in Canada and we have a less strict rating system here. It's been rated 14A, which is basically a step above PG-13 for Americans. There are a few scenes that had some passionate but short-lived making out, a sex scene that cut away before showing any actual sex, an oral sex scene that didn't show anything, a gay orgy musical scene, and flamboyant outfits. And Bohemian had a few make outs, a post-"one night stand" scene, a gay club scene, a drag scene, and flamboyant outfits. The biggest difference to me is that Rocketman is intentionally very flashy, which is already a major component of the musical genre. And it's a gay musical... Of course there will be excess! And there was, but just not as much as I expected. Freddie's risqué lifestyle wasn't front and centre of Bohemian, but it was purposely made that way. Both these movies had different approaches & intentions. Bohemian focused more on Freddie as a musician, who struggled with personal issues on the side, while Rocketman focused on the inner demons that followed young Elton from childhood, right through to his journey as a musician.
The fact that Elton is alive and was involved in the movie making process was an advantage for Rocketman, but Bohemian didn't have that luxury with Freddie. I think the writers of Bohemian felt a duty to Freddie to not get caught up with the exposing of his darker side (sex/drugs) but to instead preserve his legacy. He was harassed by the press for his entire career over his flamboyancy and sexuality, and he died at a time when being gay still wasn't accepted, so I think that respect factor was taken into consideration when the movie was made in terms of the level of personal life "disclosure" they felt was appropriate. Also, making the movie suitable for such a wide audience was a wise decision. It not only helped them rake in almost 1 billion $ but also helped get Queen's music out to every generation simultaneously. The R-rating on Rocketman is going to limit who will see it and how much money is made.
4) Something I liked a lot more about Bohemian was the concert scenes. They felt more epic to me, like you were actually there in the audience or on stage with them. The concert scenes in Rocketman were really good but the fantasy sections came in too early for me. The scene where he sings Rocketman in the massive stadium was exhilarating and the kind of thing I wanted more of, and then he suddenly blasts up into the sky like a rocket and it really killed that entire scene for me. It just made me want to laugh.
MUSICAL ASPECT: As I said I'm not really a fan of musicals nor fantasy, and being a fan of Bohemian and it's traditional biopic storytelling, I really wish Rocketman wasn't a musical. I would've liked to have seen Elton's story presented in a typical biopic way.
CRITIC REVIEWS: Something tells me that the critics had an attitude of "anything will be better than Bohemian Rhapsody", so they jumped right in to praise Rocketman, and decided to ignore any flaws it has.
MARKETING: I'm not quite sure why they didn't advertise this as a full musical, but my guess is they wanted to be vague in the trailers (kind of like Bohemian's trailers) in order to create enough buzz so that they could then ride on the coattails of Bohemian's financial success and the audience hunger it created for future music biopics. Not everyone likes musicals, so I think they wanted to keep the genre somewhat "under wraps".
OSCAR POTENTIAL: I think Taron is totally deserving of an Oscar nomination, and the movie should also get nominations for costume design, cinematography, and the sound categories. Whether that happens or not and whether there are wins or not is unpredictable at this point because we're only halfway through the year and there will be a bunch more movies coming out in the next 6 months that could kick it out as a contender. Also, because it's a summer movie and not an "awards season" movie, the hype surrounding it may fizzle out by December/January.
One scene I really loved was when Taron sang Tiny Dancer. His high notes were breathtaking! And the performance where he's dressed up in the huge puffy dress and white makeup was hilarious. There were definitely some fun, humourous scenes throughout the movie that I enjoyed.
Sadly though, I felt like Rocketman didn't inspire any interest in Elton John in me. The mixture of dark and light moments, and the bipolar feel to the movie didn't help me feel uplifted or like I'd just watched a true celebration of a great artist. But I felt that way after I watched Bohemian and immediately dove headfirst into a Queen/Freddie Mercury addiction.
If you're an Elton John fan, a fan of musicals, or part of the LGBTQ community, chances are you will love this movie.
Although it's not my style, I can appreciate the creativity that went into telling this story, but I do think it belonged more on Broadway.
I'm expecting tons of thumbs down on my review, but that's fine. I read hundreds of reviews that tore Bohemian to shreds, and while I didn't agree with them, we are all entitled to our own opinions. People need to learn to understand and accept this fact. Not everyone has to like or gravitate toward the same kinds of movies. Lastly, NEITHER movie is conclusively "better" than the other. Yes, they are both music biopics, but they are in vastly different genres (drama vs. musical fantasy) & use different styles of storytelling. It all comes down to personal preference and what speaks to/resonates with each individual person.