The teaser's mashup of the band's most famous songs, including "Another One Bites the Dust," "Killer Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," and "We Will Rock You."
Better on DVD: The theatrical cut dropped "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Will Rock You" from the Live Aid scene due to time limits, but their full, uncut scene is included in the home release as an extra.
Cliché Storm: Most of the criticism of the movie stems from the fact that it hits all of the common rock star biopic and music story tropes without doing anything new with them, right down to the "band breaks up and gets back together" part which didn't even happen in Real Life.
Critical Dissonance: While it was met a So Okay, It's Average response from critics feeling that the biopic elements were underdeveloped and predictable and that the pacing was off, with a 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 49/100 score on Metacritic, it was much more favourably received by audiences for the combination of humor and the Awesome Music of the Queen library, got an 8.1 score on IMDb, and it took number one at the box office the weekend of its release at $50 million domestic and $146 million worldwide, making its budget back three times over in a mere four days. It ended up grossing over $900 million on a $55 million budget, and earned 5 Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor and Best Picture and won all except Best Picture.
Ending Fatigue: The third act drags on a bit with the build-up to the Live Aid performance — which itself goes on for quite a while (near Real Time).
With Rocketman due to coming out within a year of each other with similar premises (biopic of a beloved gay icon singer/songwriter) and the fact that this film had much more success at the box office and awards season despite Rocketman being far more acclaimed.
It also has a fandom rivalry with pretty much every other Best Picture nominee of that year due to winning the most Oscars at that ceremony despite being the least acclaimed movie of the line-up. Not to mention the entire slew of acclaimed and/or popular films that were denied even mere nomination.
Fridge Brilliance: Saving "Radio Gaga" until after the reveal that Freddie has AIDS carries a degree of subtext. The song is all about not falling into obscurity, which as a rock star Freddie would probably fear more than actually dying. By playing it at Live Aid, he's refusing to "become a background noise" and that this will be his "finest hour".
Genius Bonus: Freddie gets especially rankled at Foster saying "Bismillah" is a meaningless nonsense word. It's actually Arabic for "In the name of God," and this is just more poking at the racist attitudes he's been dealing with his whole life.
The film has garnered a huge following in Japan and South Korea, as in both countries it made even more money than it did in the UK, the band's home country; in Japan in particular, it stayed in the top 5 for 10 weeks and grossed enough money to make the top 100 all-time films in Japan, beating movies such as Shin Godzilla and Yo-Kai Watch: The Movie. Its success in both countries has partially been attributed to the sing-along screenings it has, which even encourages people to come dressed up as Freddie Mercury and to get up and dance during the film.
The movie was released late in Italy and yet managed to become 2018's most seen and highest grossing film there. To put that into perspective, in the UK, Queen's home country, the film was less successful than Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, though the reason may be the many creative liberties taken with the band's story.
He Really Can Act: Even detractors of the film praised Rami Malek’s work as capturing the spirit of Freddie Mercury, absolutely nailing his incredible charisma and stage presence.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The sequence showing the Critical Dissonance the title song went through (audiences love it, professional critics not so much) matches the film's own reception quite well.
Hype Backlash: After becoming a huge smash at the box office and winning several major accolades, a good deal of viewers who had initially praised the film were left completely underwhelmed, finding it to be mediocre and packed to the brim with cliches.
Jerkass Woobie: Freddie himself is a troubled but ultimately good-hearted individual. Despite his moments of dickishness, he proves to be a team player and ends the film on a high note.
"And this is where the operatic part comes in."Explanation A quote from Mercury during the scene depicting the titular song's recording, typically juxtaposed with situations where operatic music would feel appropriate.
How many fucking Galileos do you want?! Explanation John Deacon asks Freddie Mercury this in the trailer, referring to the segment in the titular song.
This won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Editing.Explanation Following the film's winning of the "Best Editing" award at the Oscars, the film's been the subject of a number of jokes from people who felt that it was an Award Snub towards other nominees such as BlacKkKlansman and Vice, with detractors describing Bohemian Rhapsody's editing as having been amateurish and frantic outside of the tour and Live Aid sequences (which were likely what secured the award). Such jokes have ranged from simple jabs to a full-on "Steamed Hams"parody. This got to the point where the movie's editor himself acknowledged the win's major backlash.
In keeping with the film's infamous editing, Queen's first time meeting John Reid has been particularly lampooned after a YouTuber used it as an example of abysmal editing in the film, noting that it had 64 cuts for a scene that lasted for just over a minute and a half.
Just the domestic abuse Paul puts Freddie in. It's not physical, but emotional and mental, showing that domestic abuse isn't just physical, we see Paul blackmailing, Gaslighting, and manipulating Freddie.
The conference scene being put in Freddie's perspective. We see how anxious Freddie was throughout the scene, and it's incredibly intense and unnerving. From the close zoom-ins to the member of Queen and the interviewers, with one of them repeating the same question over and over again.
Overshadowed by Controversy: The film has gone through quite a tumultuous cycle owing to the presence of Bryan Singer as director during the #MeToo era. Going into production, Singer was already contentious due to longstanding accusations of sexual abuse towards underage men long before the Harvey Weinstein affair exploded, with many raising questions about the baggage he would bring. During filming, Singer was noted for his many absences and abusive behaviour that led to his firing, though he was still credited and financially compensated for his work under DGA rules. Things got worse when history was revisited in the wake of the film's financial success and awards season tour when an investigative article was released on his accusers the day after it received Oscar nominations. This led to an increased level of scrutiny towards the film being nominated for and winning awards in light of Singer's actions, leading to GLAAD and BAFTA withdrawing their nominations and Singer's career becoming radioactive. In particular, Rami Malek very noticeably avoided mentioning Singer during any of the numerous awards he won for the film (including the Golden Globes, leading the Globes to getting roasted on Twitter for rewarding Singer's work in their first post-MeToo voting), when the director is usually one of the first people thanked (which was seen as backpedalling from Malek himself, after an interview done before the investigative article in which Malek controversially implied that the spirit of Freddie Mercury himself may have chosen Singer as a director).
Periphery Demographic: In Japan, the movie was originally marketed for older Baby Boomers who grew up listening to their songs as they came out (and gave Queen the original Germans Love David Hasselhoff status they still enjoy to this day). However, when the movie came out, it turned out the younger moviegoers (particularly women) also were coming in droves alongside the OG Queen fans. Why? As Oriconnote Link in Japanese explains, this was likely due to their songs continuously being featured in commercials and TV shows even after Freddie died.
The recreation of the iconic Live Aid concert is the most fondly remembered part of the film. Helping matters is how a lot of the songs weren't played at any earlier point in the film, so they stand out here and feel earned.
As for the film's detractors, the scene where Queen meets John Reid is constantly brought up for infamously choppy editing.
Strawman Has a Point: Ray Foster notably trashes the "Bohemian Rhapsody" song, and this scene shows him demanding that "I'm in Love With My Car" be the single. The thing is, Foster was completely right. Six minutes was too long for a radio single at the time, and while not as good, "I'm in Love With My Car" fit the standard format. Not helping matters is the last we see of him shows him watching the Live Aid performance, with the line "no time for losers" playing in the background, and that the film is basically demonizing him for doing his job.
A minor one near the beginning: when Freddie asks to join Smile after the lead singer quits, Roger Taylor rejects him on account of his teeth. Freddie looks completely crushed before proving how good a singer he actually is.
The scene where Paul outs Freddie on television and calls him a "scared little Paki boy".
" Who Wants To Live Forever?" playing over the mostly wordless scene of his receiving the diagnosis.
The scene where Freddie tells the rest of the band that he has AIDS also counts.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The other members of Queen act as little more than window dressing to Freddie throughout. They’re there, and they all get lines, but you never get a full grasp of their fleshed our personalities or the group's overall dynamic. In fact, this applies to every single character other than Freddie Mercury, who is the only person in the film that ever seems fleshed out.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Sure he's pretty crochety and rude, but Ray Foster gets pretty unfairly demonized by the narrative for basically just doing his job as a music executive - being so harsh on "Bohemian Rhapsody" may seem ludicrous in hindsight, but given its length and highly eclectic nature he had every reason to think it was a bad choice for a lead single.
