Written by Cameron Erickson, Staff Writer
As a movie intended for general audiences, Bohemian Rhapsody works just fine. There’s enough talent behind the movie to entertain, the screenplay was competently written, and the issues have enough stakes behind them to be engaging.
The soundtrack largely consists of songs from Queen, so undoubtedly there were some very energetic and powerful moments thanks to it. Rami Malek’s performance, while overrated, was still very impressive. It’s such a shift from his character on Mr. Robot, and he proves himself to be an incredibly versatile actor. Not to mention Rami Malek won Best Actor in a Drama at the Golden Globes, as well as the movie winning Best Drama, sparking controversy as it was up against A Star Is Born.
The movie is paced very briskly, sometimes to its own detriment — glossing over details, not establishing enough of a relationship for a proper payoff later in the movie, and not allowing very emotional moments to linger. However, for the timeline that it’s attempting to cover, the pace was necessary. In the end, it’s a quick, painless, hollow screenplay, made by talented artists that gets major help from the soundtrack.
The movie presents itself in a respectful manner to Freddie Mercury and the band Queen. It doesn’t shy away from the hidden life of Mr. Mercury and his contentious behaviors behind the stage. The film takes strides to what could’ve been the quintessential Queen biopic but instead is unsure of what it wants to give the audience. Instead of seeing the process of songwriting and development, we get montages of recording and touring, which is fun to watch Mercury hop around stage in his scintillating outfits. But from me personally being a writer and musical artist, I would’ve loved to have seen more of the writing process that the band went through to create some of their major hits such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Somebody To Love,” and “We Will Rock You.”
The final moments of the film are without a doubt the best. The entire Live Aid performance is recreated with Rami Malek as the star, performing every move that the real Freddie Mercury famously did.