[Review] Bohemian Rhapsody (?/10)

Title - Bohemian Rhapsody
Studio - 20th Century Fox
Starring - Rami Malek, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Aiden Gillen, Mike Myers, Tom Hollander, Lucy Boynton, Allen Leech
Writer - Anthony McCarten
Director - Bryan Singer
Release - 2 November 2018

There is no doubt in my mind that this would have been Bryan Singer's best movie to date (after X-Men: Days Of Future Past which remains a perfection to me) had he not been booted off the set. He would have been nominated for Best Director and also Best Picture.

But Rami Malek has to be a shoe-in for Best Actor. His performance was not only a splitting image of the late Freddie Mercury but also phenomenally moving.

Same with the rest of the band mates. Gwilym Lee was Brian May, who was the second most famous one in the band. I would not have been able to separate the performance from the real person.

And that was what was the biggest success of this movie, that most of these unknown actors became these real people who were part of the biggest rock band on earth.

Anthony McCarten's script had a brilliant story that, even when veered far away from history, captivated the audience and powered forward with such ease and grace.

And when Dexter Fletcher stepped in to finish up the movie, I couldn't tell most of the scenes that were done by Fletcher because tonally it was very consistent - unlike say Justice League or the more recent The Nutcracker And The Four Realms.

The villain of the movie, played so well by Allen Leech, left such an acid impression that will make you hate the character over and over. And the surprising heroine was Lucy Boynton's Mary, who kept Freddie sane throughout.

This was a celebration of the greatest frontman in music history, Freddie Mercury, and I have to watch it again because there were too much censored scenes that made many scenes and characters incomplete. That is why I would reserve my final score until I have seen it a second time in Philippines a week from now. But if you must know, it's 8.5/10 right now.