Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) review

In the pantheon of legendary rock groups, easily one of the most prominent is the quartet of vocalist Freddie Mercury, lead guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bass guitarist John Deacon, AKA Queen. In the 70’s and 80’s, Queen produced some of the most iconic songs of all-time and partook in some of the most legendary performances in rock and roll history, with perhaps the most notable being their appearance at the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985. With all this in mind, you may be surprised to find that plans for a Queen biopic spent several years in development hell. For quite some time, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was tapped to play Freddie Mercury. However, he ultimately backed out in 2013 due to creative differences, presumably due to a rewritten script that would’ve focused more on Queen following Mercury’s tragic death due to AIDS in 1991 along with fears from May and Taylor that his comedic background would cause too many distractions. Eventually, Rami Malek took over the part and Bryan Singer was set to direct in what would be his first big directorial effort after his long-time stint on the X-Men franchise. And yet, even the production of the film itself was plagued by some major issues, which ultimately escalated to the point where Singer was fired halfway through filming for various reasons that ranged from continual on-set tardiness to reportedly tense feuds with Malek. Director Dexter Fletcher (who ironically has his own musical biopic, the Elton John vehicle Rocketman, hitting theaters next May) was then brought on to finish the film, but Singer was ultimately given its sole directorial credit as it was already 2/3rds of the way done by the time that this scandalous switcheroo occurred. Thus, for all intent and purposes, Bohemian Rhapsody (named after arguably the band’s most iconic song) is still a Bryan Singer film, and while it may not do complete justice to Queen and its legendary front-man, it still manages to be a highly entertaining musical biopic with a phenomenal lead performance from Rami Malek.

Tired of his job as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport in 1970, Farrokh Bulsara (Rami Malek) ends up finding a new job as the lead singer of an up-and-coming band named Smile alongside guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) after the band’s original singer leaves to join another group. Together, along with fellow recruit/bass guitarist John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello), the band changes their name to Queen and Farrokh changes his legal name to ‘Freddie Mercury’ while also beginning a romance with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton). And after they produce their titular debut album in 1973, the band manages to land a major contract deal with lauded manager John Reid (Aiden Gillen) at EMI Records. Unfortunately, the band begins to face some pushback when they attempt to be more experimental with their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. Despite managing to craft the six-minute operatic suite known as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, EMI executive Ray Foster (Mike Myers) refuses to have it serve as the album’s first single due to its length. Undeterred, the band leaves EMI on their path to becoming one of the most popular music groups of the era. However, the band’s bond eventually begins to be put to the test, especially after Freddie shocks his bandmates with the announcement that he’s been signed for a solo career. And as for his personal life, that too begins to get quite rocky when he finds himself starting to question his sexuality.

Perhaps the biggest question surrounding this film is whether it manages to truly do justice to the story of Queen and, more importantly, Freddie Mercury. And overall, this has been a major source of contention amongst critics, many of whom have noted that there are several instances where the film isn’t exactly ‘historically accurate’ (e.g. how Freddie first met May and Taylor, the band’s status after Freddie went solo, etc.). With that in mind, it’s understandable if some feel that this isn’t as proper of a representation of this story as it could’ve been, as there are admittedly a few moments in the film where it doesn’t quite capture the emotional resonance that it’s trying to achieve. But despite its narrative shortcomings, the film manages to work a lot better in all its other areas. While there are a few instances where the film tends to drag a bit, it also boasts a pleasantly light-hearted nature throughout thanks to some solid comedic banter amongst Freddie and his bandmates. Now granted, I’m fully aware that this won’t fly well with everyone as many had hoped that the film would be a more risqué glimpse into the band’s history instead of what we ultimately get in this ‘watered down’ PG-13 rated film that’s more intent on being an all-around crowd-pleaser. But in that regard, it does succeed in what it’s trying to be thanks in large part to its rousing musical numbers that utilize the band’s classic tunes like ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, ‘We Will Rock You’, and of course, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to great effect. And as many other critics have stated, the recreation of Queen’s iconic performance at Live Aid during the film’s finale is an undisputed highlight. To reiterate a point that I made a few weeks ago about Damien Chazelle’s First Man and its recreation of the iconic Apollo 11 mission, this film perfectly captures what it must’ve been like to witness a truly legendary musical performance for those like me who weren’t there to experience it firsthand. 

The challenge of playing someone as legendary as Freddie Mercury is undoubtedly a daunting task for anyone to attempt, but Rami Malek truly shines in the role, as he does a fantastic job when it comes to replicating Freddie’s eccentric mannerisms and his all-around charismatic persona. And while some were fearful that the film would underplay Freddie’s sexuality based on the first trailer, it ends up handling it in a manner that isn’t quite as problematic as they suspected but is still far from perfect nevertheless. While the first half of the film primarily focuses on Freddie’s relationship with Mary Austin up until their eventual breakup, the rest of the film does an okay enough job of showing Freddie’s bisexual side even though his other prominent lover, Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker), is basically limited to a cameo role. But as for Mary, Lucy Boynton does a very nice job in the role; her chemistry with Malek is excellent and the film does a nice job of showcasing how, even after their breakup, the two continued to remain on good terms with each other. And while Freddie is obviously still the main protagonist throughout, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joseph Mazzello are all excellent as Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon, respectively. Each of them gets to have their own standout moment here and there, from Roger’s frustration at having to do numerous takes of the ‘Galileo’ part of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (“How many more Galileos do you want?”) to John coming up with the iconic riff for ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ during one of the band’s heated arguments. More importantly, these four very much succeed at conveying their group’s strong camaraderie.

Now despite all the positive things that I’ve just said, it really should be noted that if you’re a big fan of Queen, it’s quite possible that you might be a bit disappointed with this film as it’s far from being a pitch-perfect take on their history as seen through the eyes of their iconic ringleader. For starters, it’s not exactly the most historically accurate musical biopic ever made as it does take some major creative liberties with certain moments in Queen’s prestigious history. And while the film doesn’t completely ignore the fact that Freddie Mercury ended up becoming one of the most prominent icons of the LGBT community, it still could’ve handled this side of the story a lot better (e.g. giving Jim Hutton a more prominent role in its proceedings). Simply put, this is not the dark and edgy Queen biopic that a lot of their fans were hoping for. Instead, it’s more of a light-hearted crowd pleaser… but that’s not entirely a bad thing, for the record. The musical sequences in this film are phenomenal, highlighted by the epic finale that is Queen’s performance at Live Aid which is practically worth the price of admission alone. Rami Malek is purely electric in the role of Freddie and is backed by an equally excellent supporting cast. And despite the whole debacle that led to Dexter Fletcher being brought in to take over for Bryan Singer, the film thankfully never feels like the mismatched product of two different directors. In short, Bohemian Rhapsody is far from perfect, but it’s still a fun time to be had when viewed on the big screen with a crowd who’s ready and willing to tap their feet in time with the music.

Rating: 4/5

X-Men: Apocalypse - SPOILER POST

“Everything they built will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we’ll build a better one!”

(WARNING: SPOILERS)

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) review

While the superhero genre has come a long way since then, the original X-Men, released on July 14, 2000, was very much the first ‘big-time’ superhero flick of the 21^st century. And while he (nor most of the film’s cast, for that matter) may not have been that familiar with the franchise when he first started working on it, Bryan Singer ultimately ended up becoming one of the pioneering directors when it came to modern-era superhero films, later paving the way for other directors like Joss Whedon and the Russo brothers to leave their own mark on the genre. Singer then followed his first X-Men film up with an even more successful sequel in the form of 2003’s X2: X-Men United. And of course as we all know, he then left the franchise to work on other projects (most notably another superhero project in 2006’s Superman Returns), which then led to the films starting to drop in quality with a highly disappointing ‘threequel’ in 2006 and an even more mediocre spin-off in 2009. Thankfully the series started to get back on track in 2011 with director Matthew Vaughn’s 1960’s-set prequel, X-Men: First Class. But while he may not have directed the film, part of the film’s success, if you ask me, came from the long-awaited return of Bryan Singer to the franchise, as he served as the film’s producer/co-writer. Three years later, Singer would finally return to the franchise full-time as he helmed X-Men: Days of Future Past, inspired by the iconic comic storyline of the same name. And to put it simply, the film proved to be not only the best X-Men film to date but also one of the best superhero films period. It also officially cemented the franchise’s overall road to redemption by pulling a much-appreciated continuity retcon that erased the events of the series’ weakest installments from its official canon.  

So now we come to what is, at the moment, seemingly set to be the final film of the franchise’s First Class era: X-Men: Apocalypse. The new film sees the X-Men take on their greatest enemy yet in the form of the ‘original’ mutant En Sabah Nur AKA Apocalypse. With Bryan Singer back to direct, most of the First Class era cast returning to reprise their roles, and some very promising new additions to the cast, who wouldn’t be excited for the latest film in this great series? Well, if you recall my previous post on this film… apparently most of the internet. Yes, while the franchise seemed to be in good standing following not only Days of Future Past but also this year’s highly successful spin-off Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, for various reasons, just didn’t get much positive attention online in the months leading up to its release, at least when compared to the other superhero film releases this year like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War. And it looks like the internet’s general undermining of the film has now translated to its current critical reception, as the film sports a measly 47% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time that I’m writing this, which actually makes it the lowest rated film of the main series not counting X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And yeah… I don’t get it. With great action, great characters, and the always great direction from the franchise’s best director, X-Men: Apocalypse is yet another highly entertaining and overall just straight-up awesome installment of the X-Men franchise.

10 years since the events of Days of Future Past, telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has reopened his school for Gifted Mutants in Westchester, New York while both Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) have gone into hiding since the incident with the Sentinels in Washington D.C, with Mystique actually now seen as a ‘hero’ to many young mutants all over the world for her ‘efforts’ in stopping Magneto during the event. While all of this is going on, an ancient mutant known as En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) is awakened from a centuries-long slumber by the cults that view him as the world’s first ‘true’ mutant. Once awakened, Apocalypse begins recruiting his new lieutenants, known as the ‘Four Horsemen’, in order to help him cleanse the Earth and preserve it for the strongest. These Four Horsemen consist of the weather-controlling Storm (Alexandra Shipp), psychic-energy wielding Psylocke (Olivia Munn), the bird-like winged mutant Angel (Ben Hardy), and Magneto, whose seemingly peaceful new life in Poland is destroyed when his past comes back to haunt him. When Apocalypse kidnaps Xavier as part of his plan for world domination, Mystique and Dr. Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) AKA Beast are forced to lead a team of young mutants, including telepath Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), optical-blasting Scott Summers (Tye Sheridan) AKA Cyclops, and teleporter Kurt Wagner (Kodi Smit-McPhee) AKA Nightcrawler into a battle against Apocalypse and his four Horsemen with the fate of the whole world at stake.

I’m rather surprised that critics are taking issue with the film for being ‘overloaded’ with action. After all, this film is titled X-Men: Apocalypse, not X-Men: Minor Incident. If you ask me, the amount of action in this film is very suitable for this kind of story in which the X-Men take on an all-powerful god-like mutant. As a result, the action sequences in this film are excellent and are backed by some very impressive and obviously highly complex CGI work. And without giving too much away, this film’s Quicksilver scene somehow manages to top the equally terrific scene that came before it in Days of Future Past. In short, this is just yet another well-directed franchise effort courtesy of Bryan Singer. In keeping with the ‘time period’ theming of the past few films (e.g. the Bond-esque 60’s setting of First Class), this film’s 80’s setting is well-developed and the dialogue is punctuated with plenty of humorous lines that liven up the mood in just the right way, from Xavier’s failed attempts to hide the fact that he’s flirting with Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), who had previously appeared in First Class but had her memory wiped by Xavier at the end of it, to one hell of a joke about trilogies at the expense of the original Star Wars trilogy. But even with the film’s great use of humor in mind, the film still manages to have some highly effective emotional moments, mostly in the form of key story beats for a few of the main characters. I mean I wouldn’t say that the film carries the exact same amount of emotional depth as some of the other X-Men films but it’s not like the film is completely lacking of it either, as I’ve seen some critics argue.

James McAvoy is once again great as the young Charles Xavier and while he may not be the main protagonist this time around compared to Days of Future Past, he still plays a vital part in the overall story. He also finally adopts the bald look that has defined the character in the comics as well as in the films when he was played by Patrick Stewart. However, for the second time in the span of three films, Michael Fassbender is ultimately the biggest standout of the cast, primarily because Magneto gets a lot of the film’s best emotional moments as he is shown to have started a family in Poland while trying to stay ‘low-key’ following the events of the previous film. As for Mystique, some have argued that Jennifer Lawrence ‘phoned it in’ this time around as a sign of her not being that interested in returning to the franchise. However, I thought that she was just as good as she’s been in the previous two films. And like how First Class was Magneto’s story and Days of Future Past was Xavier’s story, Apocalypse is arguably Mystique’s story as she finds that since the Washington incident, she has actually become a ‘hero’ for many of the younger mutants, even though she herself doesn’t see herself as one. It should also be noted that the character doesn’t appear in her natural blue form as much this time around compared to previous films, which I can definitely tell will be a problem for some fans. But considering how uncomfortable the makeup process for the character has been throughout these films (which, according to Lawrence, has recently been made easier due to the fact that the filmmakers just have her wear a full bodysuit instead of having all of the elaborate body-paint applied to her), I don’t blame her for not wanting to be like that throughout the whole film.

As far as the new cast is concerned, Singer and company did a pretty great job in casting new actors/actresses to take on the classic character roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler, previously played by James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Alan Cumming, respectively, in the franchise’s original film trilogy. Tye Sheridan gets quite a few really effective emotional scenes as Cyclops and fans of the character will be pleased to know he gets more to do this time around than he did in previous films. Also, as expected given their relationship in the comics, Sheridan forms a nice ‘chemistry’ with Sophie Turner as Jean Grey. I’ve seen a few articles online express criticism over her accent in the film but I personally didn’t really see anything wrong with it. Turner is excellent in the role and I’m certain that a few noteworthy scenes in this film will very much give X-Men fans hope that the character’s most iconic comic storyline will finally be done justice on the big-screen after the last attempt in doing so obviously didn’t turn out very well. Another character that makes a long-awaited return to the series is Nightcrawler, now played by Kodi-Smit McPhee. It might actually surprise some people that Nightcrawler ends up having quite a lot of humorous moments in the film and McPhee handles them quite well as the fact that this Nightcrawler is much younger than when he was played by Cumming in X2 shows that, at this point in his life, he can be rather socially awkward at times.

And finally, let’s talk about the film’s big baddie, Apocalypse, played by Oscar Isaac in a very unrecognizable turn due to the character’s great makeup design. Unfortunately, though, the character was continuously mocked online in the months leading up to the film’s release solely because of when the first photos of him were released, the internet made countless comparisons between him and Ivan Ooze, the villain from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers film, even though subsequent trailers made it clear that he would very much look exactly like the character does in the comics. So with all of those jokes at the character’s expense out of the way, how does this big baddie fare in the film? Well overall I think that he was a decent villain. I’m not saying that he’s the ‘greatest’ comic book film villain ever and, not being a big comic reader, I have the feeling that some fans may not entirely be pleased with how the character is portrayed in the film. Still, Isaac did manage to make Apocalypse a pretty intimidating villain thanks to his strong commanding presence, especially when he’s flanked by his Four Horsemen; Storm, Psylocke, Angel, and Magneto. Granted, none of them really get much to do in the film, other than Magneto of course, but at the very least they each get at least one memorable moment in the film. So in conclusion, while this version of the character may not entirely live up to expectations, he’s still a pretty solid antagonist in his own right.

While I usually try not to bring in notes from other critics’ reviews to use in my own reviews, I honestly don’t get some of the criticisms towards this film. The action is over-done? If you ask me this film has just the right amount of action for a story of this scale. The film is emotionless? There are plenty of great emotional scenes in this film, many of which come from characters like Magneto and Cyclops. I could go on and on but I think you get the idea. This is most definitely a film that is far better than what its current RT score suggests, which I’m now certain is yet another sign of how this film has been getting the shaft in terms of positive buzz compared to other superhero films like Batman v Superman and Captain America: Civil War. In short, X-Men: Apocalypse is yet another highly entertaining installment in the franchise that has redeemed itself over the past few years, primarily by erasing the events of its weakest installments from its canon. It’s well-directed, well-acted, and features some incredibly awesome action sequences. Now with all of that said, would I say that it is ‘better’ than Days of Future Past? No, not really but understandably that is a very tough act to follow and I didn’t go into this film expecting it to be better than its immediate predecessor. With that in mind, this film is simply yet another well-made installment of the franchise and one that is most certainly becoming a very, VERY underrated entry in the superhero genre. Needless to say, I’m very excited to see where the franchise goes from here considering that this film is supposedly the final installment of the First Class era series.   

Rating: 4.5/5

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) review

(Note: Before I start this review, I want to address the recent controversy surrounding the recent allegations made against director Bryan Singer. True or not, these charges have no connection to this film whatsoever so it will in no way affect the following review.)

I’m fairly certain that, for quite a lot of people, ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ will be their most anticipated film of the year and there are quite a few reasons for why this is. It’s based on one of the most iconic storylines in the history of the X-Men comics, 1981’s ‘Days of Future Past’, written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Taking the director’s chair for this film is Bryan Singer, the same man who brought the film franchise to relevance in the first place with 2000’s ‘X-Men’ and 2003’s ‘X2: X-Men United’. It’s safe to say that when he left the franchise after that, the series began to go downhill with the extremely disappointing ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ and the god-awful ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’. Thankfully, Singer returned (albeit only as a producer/co-writer) for 2011’s ‘X-Men: First Class’, which was certainly a return to form for the franchise. Heck, Wolverine even got a far superior solo film, ‘The Wolverine’, and the post-credits scene for that film set up what was to come for this film. Finally, because of this film taking place in different time periods, this film features one heck of an ensemble cast, probably the largest to date in the history of the franchise, consisting of members from both the original trilogy and the ‘First Class’ cast. But at the end of the day, will this film be able to live up to expectations? In two words… Hell yea!

In the year 2023, the mutant race is on the verge of extinction as a group of sentient robots known as Sentinels are in control, exterminating mutants left and right and they are even persecuting any humans who try to help them. In order to end this war in which the mutants are very much outnumbered, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) form a plan, with the help of Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), who has the ability to send a person’s conscious back in time, to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to the year 1973 when the defining moment that led to the beginning of this war occurred; the assassination of Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the creator of the Sentinels, carried out by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). Once back in time, Wolverine finds the young Xavier (James McAvoy) and the young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) as he attempts to have them team up so that they can all stop this dark future from happening before it even begins. But this won’t be that easy, as there quite a bit of bad blood between the two following the whole Cuban Missile Crisis debacle in ‘First Class’.

Now while this is a very big ensemble cast, at the end of the day the film mainly focuses on four characters; Wolverine and the three main stars of the First Class cast; the young iterations of Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique (though thankfully, Wolverine doesn’t overshadow any of them here). As for the rest of the mutants featured in this film, they’re mostly just cameos, though some do get a decent amount of screen time like Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Quicksilver (Evan Peters), the latter of which has one of the best sequences in the entire film. There’s also not really a definitive villain here; sure, Bolivar Trask does play a key part in the film’s overall story but he’s actually more of a side character here. So even though the bulk of this film’s ensemble cast isn’t given as much attention as the main characters, this film still does a great job at not only having quite the variety of mutants on display but by also really showing the ‘team’ aspect that defines this franchise as evident through a lot of the very well done action sequences. Also, if you’re still pissed about ‘X3’ and ‘Origins’, then don’t worry because this film basically says ‘screw you’ to those films in regards to what happens in this film and from what I can tell, that was the filmmakers’ main goal; to right the wrongs (mostly in regards to continuity problems) from those two films and they do succeed in doing so.

In ‘First Class’, the standout member of the cast was Michael Fassbender as Magneto, though James McAvoy did an equally terrific job as Xavier in that film. Here, McAvoy’s the big standout, not only because this is easily McAvoy’s best performance in the role to date (even though this is only his second film appearance in the franchise) but the writing for this character and the arc that he goes through in this movie is just fantastic, as he continues to grow into the Xavier that we know from the original trilogy (on that note, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, like a lot of the other cast members in this film, are basically just doing cameos here but regardless of that, it’s really nice to see these two back). But of course, Fassbender is excellent once again as is Hugh Jackman (I’m not sure yet if this is his best performance in the role to date after his excellent turn in ‘The Wolverine’ but I’d say it’s definitely one of the best) and Jennifer Lawrence. In fact, the whole cast is great here; this is the first time in a while in regards to these movies where I can’t think of any ‘weak links’ in the cast (which unfortunately was the case with ‘First Class’ and ‘The Wolverine’, which both had one weak link in their casts).

Do you want to know how good this film was? It’s so good that I think that I’m actually becoming more of an X-Men fan than I had been before (I was a general fan of the movies but I haven’t read the comics or watched the 90’s TV series) because of it. This is definitely one of the finest X-Men films to date, if not the best. Not only does it erase the bad memories of ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ and ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ but in terms of its essence, this truly feels like an X-Men movie with plenty of mutant action and some excellent action sequences (this film also has the best climax in the entire franchise to date). I was hooked into this film almost immediately after it started and for what is certainly a lot of people’s most anticipated film of the year, this film really doesn’t disappoint. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… thank god Bryan Singer returned to this franchise because it’s clear that he understands this franchise and now thanks to this film, the series’ chronology is far more consistent following the whole debacle of ‘X3’ and ‘Origins’ and hopefully he’ll stay for good this time as the series will continue on. It’s already been announced (and is briefly hinted at in this film’s post credits scene) what’s happening next.

Rating: 5/5!