This has got to be the most overrated film in recent history. Overrated by the audience. Critics got it right this time, even though they rarely do.
Rami Malek offered a great impression of Freddie Mercury. But impression it was. He failed to capture the essence, the exoticness of the real Freddie, and his manliness. Rami's acting made Freddie looked like a generic gay man, which Freddie wasn't. Freddie's might have been a weirdo, but never acted like a sissy. At times, his acting simply looked ugly, such as his exaggerated emphasis on Freddie's incisors. You can easily verify what I am saying by searching for videos of the real Freddie Mercury, and you can see the real Freddie never acted the way as portrayed by Rami. Sacha Baron Cohen, the original actor slated to play Freddie, might have been a better choice.
The worst part of the movie was the script. Far too much "creative liberty" was taken to alter historical events. Omitting details for clarity, adding details to fill in the blanks, compressing events to fit his career in a 2-hour movie, that's normal. But Queen never broke up! Freddie making a solo was never a betrayal! What the heck? As if the life of Freddie bloody Mercury wasn't legendary enough, the writers had to throw in fictional events to fill up the runtime. This is disrespectful to Freddie's legacy and his fans, and at the same time misleading to the youth, into thinking he's a self-centered a-hole (well, more of a self-centered a-hole).
So much of the movie was revolved around Freddie's relationship with Mary Austin. Then all of a sudden, in one short scene Jim Hutton was introduced (with yet another unnecessary historical inaccuracy). And that was it. When Jim reappeared at the end of the movie, I almost forgot who he was. Jim was supposed to be the other love of Freddie's life, and the screenwriters made them fell in love in one short conversation, never to meet again until the end?
Then finally it comes to the music. There are times the editors cram in the songs for the sake of playing Queen's songs, without adding to the narrative of the movie. Heck, they re-enacted 70% of the whole Wembley concert, and yet you can easily find the original performance even on YouTube. If they had to invest that much runtime in one event, they'd better not skim over other important events... oh, wait. For a proper music biographical film, try "Ray" (2004).
The movie wasn't bad. Just not worth all the praise it's been getting.
Rami Malek offered a great impression of Freddie Mercury. But impression it was. He failed to capture the essence, the exoticness of the real Freddie, and his manliness. Rami's acting made Freddie looked like a generic gay man, which Freddie wasn't. Freddie's might have been a weirdo, but never acted like a sissy. At times, his acting simply looked ugly, such as his exaggerated emphasis on Freddie's incisors. You can easily verify what I am saying by searching for videos of the real Freddie Mercury, and you can see the real Freddie never acted the way as portrayed by Rami. Sacha Baron Cohen, the original actor slated to play Freddie, might have been a better choice.
The worst part of the movie was the script. Far too much "creative liberty" was taken to alter historical events. Omitting details for clarity, adding details to fill in the blanks, compressing events to fit his career in a 2-hour movie, that's normal. But Queen never broke up! Freddie making a solo was never a betrayal! What the heck? As if the life of Freddie bloody Mercury wasn't legendary enough, the writers had to throw in fictional events to fill up the runtime. This is disrespectful to Freddie's legacy and his fans, and at the same time misleading to the youth, into thinking he's a self-centered a-hole (well, more of a self-centered a-hole).
So much of the movie was revolved around Freddie's relationship with Mary Austin. Then all of a sudden, in one short scene Jim Hutton was introduced (with yet another unnecessary historical inaccuracy). And that was it. When Jim reappeared at the end of the movie, I almost forgot who he was. Jim was supposed to be the other love of Freddie's life, and the screenwriters made them fell in love in one short conversation, never to meet again until the end?
Then finally it comes to the music. There are times the editors cram in the songs for the sake of playing Queen's songs, without adding to the narrative of the movie. Heck, they re-enacted 70% of the whole Wembley concert, and yet you can easily find the original performance even on YouTube. If they had to invest that much runtime in one event, they'd better not skim over other important events... oh, wait. For a proper music biographical film, try "Ray" (2004).
The movie wasn't bad. Just not worth all the praise it's been getting.