Double Review - Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody

Following a recommendation from my friend Patrick, I’ve decided to do a double review of two of the most significant biopics of all time – the one on Elton John and the one on Freddie Mercury.

First, there’s the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, directed by the ménage à trois of a sex offender (Bryan Singer), Sergeant Martin from Band of Brothers (Dexter Fletcher), and Hollywood’s most underrated cinematographer (Newton Thomas Sigel). Coming out after a 14-year production history that makes Trump’s border wall look efficient, mixed reviews and over $903 million in box office revenue followed it as it went on to win 4 Oscars, the Golden Globe for Best Drama, and the hearts of people around the world.

Rocketman, also directed by the aforementioned Sergeant Martin and written by the guy who gave us the movie Cats, is about the early life, musical breakout, descent into drugs and eventual redemption of one Elton John. When this movie came out, it got so many comparisons to Bohemian Rhapsody – the director of Rocketman notably directed about 30-40% of Bohemian Rhapsody, many of the trailers shared a similar vibe, and even the costume designer Julian Day worked on both movies. It was inevitable to compare them, but Rocketman stands tall compared to Bohemian Rhapsody, if only in quality and not box office receipts (in the latter, it lags behind by $708 million).

Rocketman's blend of surreality and emotion is staggering.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two films is that Rocketman placed songs from Elton John into the context of his own life – we see how his teenage wanderings led to Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, or his loneliness led to the song Rocketman. That gives every moment where there’s a huge, popular song everybody knows a serious emotional depth, as what we considered a song of joy and dance is actually almost melancholic in its presentation.

Meanwhile, in Bohemian Rhapsody, songs are just placed at random spots in the narrative to provoke nostalgia, like Jim Cramer pressing buttons in Mad Money with exaggerated sound effects to make sure you’re still paying attention. It’s nice to hear the music of Queen, but Rocketman’s linking of the music with a serious emotional narrative function gives it so much more depth.

Taron Egerton as Elton John.

Moving onto visual presentation, both movies are very nice-looking films, with a ton of effort put into the production design and costumes. But once again, Rocketman gets more points in this area as it ties in many of its scenes of colourful excess to the main themes and characterisation of Elton. Using a variety of techniques from abstract, music-video sequences to some outstanding long takes and choreography, director Dexter Fletcher is really crafting a story where every visual and fantastic set-piece is hammering something home about the character of Elton.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a movie with visual flair, but no thematic depth or serious point of characterisation or story development to hammer home. One of the key aspects of great cinematography is that every shot gives a point to convey a story, a theme or a character in its composition or content. While Bohemian Rhapsody does look nice, the only shots in it I can clearly picture and say are GREAT shots is an editing trick where a chicken appears to be singing the eponymous song, as well as the Live Aid sequence and one or two others. Three-ish sequences in the whole movie where I can definitively say “that’s a great shot”.

Rocketman has way more memorable shots which I can clearly state are examples of great cinematography. The same goes for the set pieces, having at least 5 breath-taking musical scenes where Bohemian Rhapsody only has two.

The best part of Bohemian Rhapsody - Live Aid.

The next point I have is the willingness of the films to delve into the more mature subject matter at the centre of their stories. Both Freddie Mercury and Elton John were not exactly private with the fact that they essentially slept on pillows of cocaine while groups of leather-clad fans debated on which testicle they got.

Rocketman embraces this side and treats it with the mature depth it really deserves, helping us to understand the darker aspects of Elton’s stardom. But Bohemian Rhapsody treats its mature content in the same way as the Fifty Shades of Grey movies, barely showing anything and expecting its audience to be all-white Southern Baptists who will actively go “oh no, those look like drugs! Oh no, he’s going into a club (although we never see any actual act in the club)! This is bad!” What is the grounding force in this movie? If we don’t actually see anything of what these guys are going through, it’s going to be harder to understand and sympathise.

Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury.

Finally, let’s talk about the actual performances of Elton John and Freddie Mercury. Rami Malek as Freddie gives a ton of life to the PERFORMING Freddie, but as the dramatic character of Freddie, he isn’t really given much to do. Malek feels like exactly what he is – a person who does a great impression of Mercury, but never taps into the dramatic heart that could have convinced people he was Freddie. Most of the emotional depth in the movie does not come from Malek’s performance, but instead the use of nostalgia-baiting Queen music almost as a “hey, look over there!”.

Meanwhile, Taron Egerton is really going into the ups and downs of Elton, embodying both the wild, charismatic stage performer and the broken, emotionally wounded soul underneath. We feel for him because we understand clearly the sh+t he’s going through, as it’s shown on screen and treated as his everyday life. Elton comes off as a living, breathing person in Rocketman while Freddie in Bohemian Rhapsody is more of a computer hologram.

Before I give my grade, I just want to talk about one thing I despise in both of these movies: the ending paragraph. In both movies, the end is just a slide show of images and words saying “Elton/Freddie found a partner, moved here, etc.” which I feel would have been much better to see in action or not even mention. If we see those moments in the film, we will feel much more emotionally fulfilled, and if we didn’t see the end paragraphs or these events, we wouldn’t feel like we’re missing something and we would feel emotionally fulfilled, especially in Rocketman’s case. DON’T PUT HUGE TEXT AT THE END OF MOVIES, HAVE A CLEAR VISUAL ENDING!

My final grade puts Rocketman considerably above Bohemian Rhapsody in terms of filmmaking quality and enjoyment. If I were teaching the art of the biopic at a film studies class, I would point out Rocketman’s clever use of the subject material and genuine originality of presentation much more than I would talk about the more popcorn Sunday Bohemian Rhapsody.

Rocketman gets an 8/10, or an A-.

Bohemian Rhapsody gets a 6/10, or a C+.

Do you want me to review any other films and do another double review? Leave your answers in the comments below.