Biographical musical about music legend Elton John.

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2019)

Rocketman is a new film adaptation of a biography. The film is directed by Dexter Fletcher, the director of Eddie the Eagle.
The film is about the biography of Reginald Kenneth Dwight, who is more known by his stage name: Elton John. Elton John is played in the film by Taron Egerton. The film is further produced by Elton John. The film focuses on the ups and downs in Elton John's life. How in his childhood he always had the feeling that he did not get enough love from his parents and then little from his father.
When he shows that he has a musical talent, he is sent by his parents to a special school for music. At this school he meets Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), who is good at thinking up and writing lyrics. In this way the two become friends and know how to break through in the music world. Elton John quickly touches many people with his unique music style and lyrics. In this way he comes into contact with the positive sides of the music world such as money and fans, but also with the negative sides such as too much alcohol and other drug use. He did these wrong things to try to escape his inner loneliness. Elton must try to overcome the negative sides in order to find his own happiness for himself and his fans.
Dexter Fletcher has turned this biography into a musical, because in the middle of the scenes they often suddenly switch to a song. This film is a bit different, for example, last year's Bohemian Rhapsody musical biography. Dexter Fletcher has also taken over the directing work of this film, after director Bryan Singer went the wrong way and was fired by the studio work. Dexter has corrected his mistakes and finished that film.
With Rocketman, he was given the opportunity to make a musical biography himself. By turning this biography into a musical rather than a biography, he has taken the opportunity to portray both similar films in a different way. With Bohemian Rhapsody, they also played it safely and did not delve too deeply into the negative aspects of Freddie Mercury's life. With Rocketman they have dared to take this step more and show some dark times from Elton John's career, but as a viewer you also get the necessary explanation to understand why these things happened in his life.

In many biography films about well-known music artists, the artist who is making the biography is often deceased, but Elton John is still alive. The film ends sometime around 1990 and so misses some happy moments of Elton's daily life these days. If they had spent a little less time on all dark sides in the script, there would have been enough time left over for example to meet his partner, how he starts his own family or how he supports charity actions.
By playing this biography as a musical, as a viewer you actually get the chance to sing the songs or to tap the beat with your hands or feet. In Bohemian Rhapsody they used Freddie Mercury's audio clips on which Rami Malek who played the role of Freddie Mercury only had to play on. Taron Egerton and the rest of the cast really sing the songs of this film themselves. The songs may sound a little different than you know them. This has given the cast the chance to put the songs in their own way.
Taron Egerton and Elton John have already collaborated on this movie in the movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Elton John also advised Taron Egerton not to copy his personality completely, but to make it his own version. This way Taron Egerton knows how to portray the role in a good and personal way.