The highly anticipated biopic of the Queen frontman premiered this weekend - but what did everyone have to say?
Freddie Mercury has been a global icon since the 1970s, but up until now his journey to becoming one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet has been largely untold.
Directed by Brian Singer and written by Anthony McCarten, "Bohemian Rhapsody" tells the tale of Queen's meteoric rise to fame interwoven with the band members' struggles, Mercury's own lifestyle spiraling out of control, his life-threatening illness, and his romance with Irishman Jim Hutton.
Read more: Who played Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury’s Irish boyfriend in “Bohemian Rhapsody?”
Despite varying reviews, the film took in an estimated $50m in the US at the weekend - and has already made more than $140m worldwide. In fact, reviews are so disparate across outlets, that it seems to be a pretty divisive release.
Metacritic, which aggregates critics' reviews, gives the picture a 49% score. On Rotten Tomatoes, it gets a very mediocre 60%. However - the same website states that an overwhelming 95% of people who saw the movie liked it.
Deadline reports that when "Bohemian Rhapsody" was played at an official screening of over 900 people at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, actor Rami Malek was even given a standing ovation by the crowd.
The New York Times was the least forgiving. "The film seems engineered to be as unmemorable as possible," critic A.O. Scott writes.
Scott ultimately renounces it as a film that has the "Overall narrative architecture of ... a Lego palace of clichés."
But - as Forbes writes - do these poor critic reviews really matter?
"In short, even the bad reviews told moviegoers that if they just wanted a Bohemian Rhapsody with a good central performance, multiple opportunities to rock out to Queen’s greatest hits, and moments that approximated the sensation of being at a Queen concert, they would get their money’s worth," critic Scott Mendelson states.
Read More: How Freddie Mercury met his long-term Irish love, Carlow man Jim Hutton
Unfortunately, Irishman Jim Hutton (played by Armagh actor Aaron McCusker) seems to take a backseat in the screenplay to Mary Austin, the woman whom Mercury was in a longterm relationship with.
Bohemian Rhapsody doesn't actually cover his relationship with Jim Hutton, his husband (Freddie called him as his husband); Was I disappointed? Yes. But we got to see Jim Hutton in few scenes, you can entirely see that their relationship is going to be a Beautiful Relationship - pic.twitter.com/isgmbnqo47
— lex saw borhap💫🏳️🌈 (@AIpaclnos) October 30, 2018
"In the film, Mercury meets Hutton after one of his wild parties (Hutton was serving food) and tracks him down using a phonebook (it turns out there are a lot of Jim Huttons in London). The movie ends with the beginning of their relationship, after Mercury’s triumphant Live Aid performance. In reality, the two got together just before Live Aid— and remained together until the very end."
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