M RM

This film is an exercise in the ego of May and Taylor and completely ignores what makes Mercury so fascinating and charismatic to this day. It rewrites history, time lines and facts to make it look like Queen survived in spite of Freddie, not because of him! The acting and cinematography is excellent in areas but it is essentially a generic, chronologically- structured student film any one of us could make after reading a Wikipedia page on Queen. There is no insight into Freddie's childhood, religion, early influences, whether he struggled with his sexuality nor insight into his musical muses or moments of musical inspiration. It is incredibly one-dimensional and lacks depth and character development. The final rushed expository scenes where we are treated to his revelation of his diagnosis to his bandmates, the beginning of his relationship with Hutton, the reconciliation with his father and an excruciating Live Aid scene (which we can watch on YouTube, by the way) are such a waste and, frankly, cringe-inducing. The film reduces Freddie to a cautionary tale: when he was straight, life was good and when he was gay, life turned bad and the band suffered. The scene where he begs their forgiveness with his tail between his legs is laughable; the egocentrism of May and Taylor is breathtaking! This film is a cynical money-making exercise to get new people to Google Queen and line the pockets of these aging hasbeens; what's sad is they have betrayed their friend Freddie in the process. Deacon is right to have nothing to do with them - they have danced on Mercury's grave for the last 25 years.