We went to see the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody " about the rock band Queen on November 3rd !
We were both really excited to see it since we watched many previews of the movie because the previews looked great.
and we booked the seats a few days ago.
It's country side of USA here, so there were not many people in the theater on a Saturday afternoon, 2pm. so we were feeling comfortable to watch it in not so busy place.
Our review
My husband and I are big fans of Queen and we really wanted to love this movie after seeing the previews and seeing all the actors' interviews about it. It was really interesting to know how they were preparing to make the movie.
We could see the actors all really worked hard to make this movie.
Pro -
* The actress Lucy Boynton who played Mary who was Freddie Mercury's girldfriend, her acting was great.
* Rami Malek put in a lot of effort to try and get the movements and mannerisms of Freddie Mercury.
and he looked like he was really singing.
* The actors who played Brian May, John Deacon, Roger Taylor ( Gwilym Lee, Joseph Mazzello, Ben Hardy ) look similar to the original band members, especially the actor who plays Brian May, looks very similar.
* The actor and actresses who played Freddie Mercury's mother and father and sister 's acting was great.
* They showed 70's time period of Queen quite alot at the beginning part of the movie. ( personally we both love early years Queen's music and also Freddie Mercury's looks in early 70's, more than the 80's. )
* Music choice in the movie. Many of Queen's timeless epic songs are included, including the title song. Amazing to hear in a movie theater sound system.
Con -
* This movie's story is more fantasy than truth, and it makes Freddie Mercury not look good. ( It's our impression though )
I say this from having read Biography books, magazines, and Freddie Mercury's interviews.
* The structure of the movie was not well connected.
I understand they cut many parts because of the time limit , but this was not the best way to do it.
* They did not show Queen touring Japan. In the previews they showed them arriving in the airport and also showed a scene with a Japanese audience.
But when we watched the movie, we saw none of that.
These scenes had all been cut out. Maybe these were cut out for the North America release ?
In reality, when Queen was starting out, Japan was the first place that treated them like superstars.
Their third album " Sheer Heart Attack " was number one in Japan at the time, and when they arrived at the airport in Tokyo there were over three thousand fans there to greet them.
The song " Seven Seas of Rhye" had some success previously, but Queen's first really big hit song was "Killer Queen" which was also a big hit in Japan.
Other countries began noticing them more after this.
Maybe these scenes will be included when this movie is released next week in Japan.
Freddie Mercury said he really loves Japan a lot , and he had a room in his house specially designed in Japanese style, he loved many traditional Japanese art and items, and he had a beautiful grand piano shipped to his house from Japan.
They did show his Japanese Kimono style home-wear though. But it would have been great if they showed his love for Japan.
Here in the USA, the movie shows " Oh, USA !" when their management team announced they would be touring in the USA the first time.
so I guess they are sorting and either including or deleting scenes depending on what country the movie is showing, to avoid audiences getting bored.
I guess because many people are not interested in other countries.
* Freddie Mercury was not the only one who made a solo album. In fact,
Roger Taylor made two solo albums previously .
And Brian May had also made an album called Star Fleet Project with Eddie Van Halen, Alan Gratzer, Phil Chen and Fred Mandel two years before Freddie made his solo.
but the story shows Freddie wanted to do a solo album so he told them about it and asked them to break up.
but in interviews Freddie said he never thought about seriously breaking up .
One of his quotes when he was asked about it was " Why kill the goose that laid the golden egg ? "
* In the movie, when he wanted to get back together with them again, the other band members make a requirement to Freddie that going forward, all the songs will show written by Queen instead of written by whichever member wrote the song.
In reality, the band members started putting all their new songs credited to Queen name starting with the album " The Miracle " when they realized Freddie would not live much longer.
Everything I've read about it indicates that this was a group decision, not something that was imposed on Freddie as a prerequisite to him rejoining the band.
* John Deacon's real character seems different from the movie, even though the actor who played Deacon looks similar.
My impression of John Deacon is more direct and honest and witty. He doesn't often say much , but when he does, he speaks so fast. He's often quiet, but Freddie said that when he started talking, you couldn't get him to stop.
* Roger Taylor's drumming is more wild than in the movie, also his true character is more wild and expressive.
* Rami Malek doesn't look like Freddie at all, especially his eyes ( the shape of his eyes ). Also, Freddie had high cheekbones, but Rami does not.
While watching the movie , it was difficult to forget that it was Rami Malek acting as Freddie, since he doesn't look like him. Even though I can see he put alot of work and effort into it.
* All the fights and arguments shown in the movie were mainly between Freddie and Roger Taylor.
Whereas in reality, a large proportion of the disagreements and arguments within the band were between Brian May and Freddie and also between Brian May and Roger Taylor.
According to Freddie's interviews, Freddie and Brian seemed to have the most arguments , because both of them are perfectionists.
Also, in real life Brian and Roger had also got into a big fight, with Roger ending up spraying a can of hairspray towards Brian.
But this movie makes Brian look to be the only adult in the room and the only one harmonious with all members.
According to John Deacon's interview, Freddie was the one who usually calmed things down when there were arguments.
* This movie makes it look like it's three members against Freddie.
Like as if the other three band members are patient to handle the " monster" Freddie.
I've read about that within the band Freddie and Deacon were close friends, and Brian and Roger were close friends.
When John Deacon came up with the bass line for " Another one bites the dust ", Brian and Roger didn't like that kind of disco dance music and there was an argument about it, but Freddie liked it and so they ended up recording it.
And also, Freddie and Roger were not always fighting like in this movie.
When they were younger and just starting out with the band, they were trying to save money and so they shared an apartment for awhile and ran a small clothing store/stall.
* They didn't show the scene of how they met John Deacon.
I know there is limited time and it's hard to include all the parts in their bio, but I wanted to see how each member met each other .
* Freddie Mercury was a giver and a very kind person, but this movie doesn't show any of the multiple examples of his incredible generosity.
* Freddie Mercury was a super optimist person and had a lot of sense of humor, but this movie didn't show that part of his character much.
*The scene where Freddie invites Roger to a party, but Roger says he can't because he has to get back to his wife and kids.
This response would've fit John Deacon's personality more, as Roger was more of a party animal and playboy in his younger years, and it's doubtful he would have refused a party with his band-mate.
* When Freddie ( Rami Malek ) told the band members that he got illness, the acting of the member's reaction was not impressive .
Emotion and expressions were weak, so I did not feel anything in such an important scene.
* Freddie Mercury's super-human energy is legend. My husband saw Queen live in concert in 1977 and confirms this.
So, although Rami tries his best, probably no one is up to the task of showing the whirlwind hurricane, musical genius, dynamo that was Freddie Mercury.
The only way is to watch the man himself performing in original Queen concert footage.
Overall, we would rate three stars for this movie.
The story was written by Anthony McCarten, Peter Morgan.
Producers for this movie were Graham King, Jim Beach, Dexter Fletcher, Justin Haythe, Richard Hewitt, Brian May, Arnon Milchan, Denis O'Sullivan, Jane Rosenthal, Donald Sabourin, Roger Taylor.
Of all the producers, Brian May and Roger Taylor are the Queen band members who know the truth.
I've read that Brian was often on site during the production and was one of the go to person whenever the actors had questions.
So this movie may be more of Brian May's view about Queen and how he was seeing Freddie Mercury.
I can't say for sure just how much control Brian had over the script.
But it just seems the final product is not as accurate as it could have been.
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Before watching the movie on November 3rd, I read about that many people cried when watching it, so I was preparing my handkerchief and tissue for preparation to cry because I'm usually easy to get emotional and cry when I watch an impressive movie.
But I did not need it, same as my husband.
I felt emotion of the movie was missing.
Although I did feel emotional watching Lucy Boynton's acting and also the actor playing Freddie's father.
Why do I care for all these things and was not satisfied with this movie ?
I've been thinking about this question, because when I saw the movies about the classical composers Mozart's biopic movie "Amadeus ", and Frederic Chopin 's biopic movie " Desire for Love" , these were also not completely true stories either.
But we both really loved these films and watched so many times because we felt these are so awesome. ( We are both huge fans of Frederic Chopin as well. )
For other biopic movie, I also thought Picaso's movie which was played by Anthony Hopkins was great as well.
So the problem of this movie " Bohemian Rhapsody " not telling the truth may not be the reason.
I suppose something is missing as far as how the movie was directed , this is why we did not get huge impression from it and it didn't make us to want to watch it over and over.
We prefer to listen to Queen's music over and over, without this movie.
Anyways, they cut many parts and we heard the original film is more like 3 hours long, so we will watch the non cut version of it when it's released, and will see our impression.
We just feel Queen and Freddie Mercury deserve a much better movie.