By Renee’ C.
Rating: 4 (Out of 5 Reels)
A chronicle of the years leading up to Queen’s legendary appearance at the Live Aid (1985) concert (IMDB).
I have been a fan of Queen’s music since I was a kid and have seen documentaries about Freddy Mercury and Queen so I knew a lot about what happened to them through the mid-eighties. This film takes us from Queen’s humble beginnings through becoming super stars and beyond from Mercury’s perspective.
It is an understatement to say that Rami Malek gives a spectacular performance as Mercury but he truly shines. The other members of the band, Gwilym Lee as Brian May the keyboardist; Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon the guitarist; and Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor the drummer do an excellent job as well but do not share as much screen time as Malek understandably.
This film is well written, acted and made but at two hours and fifteen minutes, it is a bit too long but its redeeming feature is the music. I loved the manner in which this film showed us how the music was created. It shows us how creative all members of the band were and how their natural talent catapulted them to music stardom. Queen fans will absolutely love this film.