I almost didn't go to see Bohemian Rhapsody because of the roasting it got from the critics, but being a life-long Queen fan I couldn't pass it up.
Thank goodness I didn't. Not for the first time in their history, Queens critique reviews are so far off the mark it's frankly embarrassing (look up Rolling Stones original review of the mighty Jazz album to see what I mean). Yes, this is a diluted depiction of Freddie's lifestyle, but we didn't need a warts-and-all fly-on-the-wall documentary as that's been covered plenty of times in the past. What we get is pure Queen - screw-the-establishment-this-is-for-the-fans bombast with good all-round performances from the actors and a frankly astonishing one from Rami Malek. His performance is up there with some of the greatest of recent memory (think of Heath Ledger's incredible Joker performance - we're talking that level here). If he doesn't get an Oscar nod then there's something wrong somewhere.
And the sound... Good lord it's like actually being at a Queen concert.