Bohemian Rhapsody Review

"there's only room in this band for one hysterical queen!"


Bohemian Rhapsody was directed by Bryan Singer and stars the likes of Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Allen Leech, Tom Hollander and Mike Myers. The film follows the story of Freddie Mercury and the formation of the world famous band Queen leading up to Queens legendary appearance at Live Aid concert in 1985.

Bohemian Rhapsody is without a doubt a stand out film of the year for me. When the first trailers came out for Bohemian Rhapsody I was hyped but slightly hesitant whether or not the film could actually live up to the legacy of Freddie Mercury and Queen, and for me film truly does, whilst it's not entirely a perfect a film (we will get onto that later) it is definitely a highly enjoyable film with some truly great feel good moments (with the music) and some great storytelling and characters that will have you gripped throughout the film. One standout aspect of the film is without a doubt Rami Malek who plays the legendary Freddie Mercury. Malek is absolutely incredible and does not just do a great job at portraying Freddie but does a great job at actually becoming the character and literally steals every scene he is in. The music is of course another strong element in the film. The music is handled beautifully in the film, and is used not just in terms of when the band was actually writing and performing the songs, but are used creatively in a way to help portray what the band is going through during their lives, and of course credit has to be given to the amazing Live Aid concert towards the end of the film, whilst throughout of the film you get small snippets of full songs, but with the Live Aid concert we as the audience are truly given a treat and it honestly feels like you are there watching Queen and really helps to capture the sheer scale and atmosphere of the concert perfectly. 

There really wasn't anything that I really did not enjoy about this film, if anything, and these are only small nitpicks (I am being extremely picky here!) at times the film felt a little rushed, I understand from a filmmakers point of the view that there is so much story and content that you want to put into the film and of course with any film there are limitations to how much you can show and not make the film drag in anyway, but at times it was a little too quick in terms of the films structure. Whether that be time jumps to different years, or just generally rushing around to try and cover as much of Freddie's and the bands story as possible, but the film could have just done with being slightly longer or even just edited in a different way to allow key events to breathe without feeling rushed. Also another very small issue was towards the end of the film during the Live Aid concert, whilst the concert itself is one of the best aspects of the film some of the CGI on the crowd and the stadium was a little off at times especially one shot which no effort is made to cover up the fact that it is clearly CGI, it would of been better if that shot was just completely cut out of the film as it added nothing to the sequence and only drew attention to its sloppy CGI.

Overall Bohemian Rhapsody is without a doubt an extremely enjoyable film, whether it's learning about some tragic moments in the life of Freddie Mercury to wanting to get out of your seat and enjoy the legendary music of Queen, the film truly has something for everyone and if you love Queen then this film is for you.

Overall verdict: 4.5 out of 5