Bohemian Rhapsody could’ve been better

Jamiah Sanders, Staff Writer

On Nov 2, 2018, Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic film of the band Queen, took an inside look of Freddie Mercury’s life, showcasing the iconic music created by each of the band members and the struggles that lingered throughout their time together.

The movie wasn’t as great as I thought it was going to be. Queen is often thought of as the greatest bands of all time, so I went into this thinking that my socks will be blown off and that I’d be more obsessed with the band than I am now. None of those things happened. I did, however, have a greater appreciation for the work and the hardships the band had to overcome in order to become who they are now.

The movie itself was stunning, but I was underwhelmed. First off, the beginning of the of the movie felt rushed. One minute we are seeing Freddie Mercury and the band performing their first gig at the university and then they are recording and selling bigger and better albums across the country. I wanted to see more of their first moments together before became Queen.

A few of the serious moments had me laughing and asking myself why I was laughing in the first place. The prosthetic teeth are to blame. The way Rami Malek’s (Freddie Mercury) mouth seemed to move around the teeth was very distracting. It seemed his mouth couldn’t accommodate the prosthetics and he sucked in his cheeks a lot, which made the prosthetics even more prominent. Any time Malek talked, I couldn’t focus on anything but his two front teeth.

I can’t deny, Malek was very true to the character. For example, in the last concert featured in the movie, Live Aid, Malek did a fantastic recreation of all the actions Freddie Mercury did. If Mercury moved a across the stage while dancing with his microphone, Malek did the exact movement with perfect timing and execution. It was step for step all of the movements Freddie Mercury did at Live-Aid in 1985. I was very impressed.

Many critics had mixed reactions bordering of harsh criticisms or praise as well.

Carly Lewis, a writer for Globe and Mail, said “Freddie Mercury deserved better.”

Yet, others praised it. Julie S., an audience reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes, said “Queen fans (like me) will love this!”

Now, I’m not saying the movie was horrible. Maybe my expectations were too high, which in turn, made the movie seem to not live up to the name it was portraying.