Does ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ bite the dust?

If anything it was a champion.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is a biopic over the hit 80s rock band Queen, primarily focusing on lead singer Freddie Mercury (played by ‘Mr. Robot”s Remi Malek) and following his life with the band, discovering his sexuality as well as his battle with AIDS. The movie shows nearly every aspect of Mercury’s life as well as every aspect of his over-the-top personality.

It’s nice seeing a behind the scenes look at the creative process of some of the band’s hit songs. We get to look at the different ways Queen came up with songs like “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and of course “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The creative and inventive ideas that Queen had while making those songs makes you appreciate the band even more, which I didn’t even think was possible.

We also get a closer look at Freddie Mercury’s personal life. We see his rocky relationship with his Middle Eastern family, particularly his complex relationship with his father, his friendship with the genuine love of his life Mary Austin (played by Lucy Boynton), and his struggle with coming to terms with his sexuality. All aspects are handled very well which allows the movie to humanize such a rock legend.

Remi Malek does an exceptional job as Mercury. Coming from the small screen in USA’s ‘Mr. Robot’, Malek makes his transition to his first major role on the big screen look easy. He portrays Mercury’s flamboyant tendencies perfectly, maybe even going a little too over-the-top at times, if that’s even possible. The other bands members, Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon are all great for the roles, especially Lee who is a dead ringer for May.

There are quite a few bad parts about the movie, however. Some parts of the film just feel like a sequence of things happening with nothing really tying it together. There’s also some historical and timeline flaws about the movie. One such flaw being when Mercury finds out about him getting AIDs. The movie suggests it was before the iconic Live-Aid concert, when in reality it was two years after the fact.

Overall ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is an extremely powerful film, especially for the Live-Aid scene at the end which transports you to 1985 Wembley Stadium in London, making you feel like you are part of the live audience. It’s a movie that must be scene by any fans of Queen.