Rami Malek steals the show as Queen biopic buckles under pressure.

Rock biopics are a funny old business. A tricky thing to get right at the best of times, when you consider how many sides you’ve got to please, they’re nigh-on impossible to pull off without upsetting someone.

For any biopic, appeasing fans will only get you so far, as true success only comes when this fan service is offset by an honest, open, and well-balanced script. To its own detriment, the genre is often obsessed with paying homage to an artist’s legacy, regardless of the finer details; yet, while this approach ensures bums on seats, pandering must be avoided at all costs.

A puff piece really doesn’t do anyone any favours in a genre that demands absolute honesty and, while paying tribute is always important, it must be anchored in something substantial to achieve the desired impact.

Unfortunately, the biopic has always had a rather irksome tendency to lean heavily on the self-congratulatory nonsense, yet there are many that break the mould to offer a fully-formed portrait of a life and the celebration of a legacy without sacrificing integrity. Bohemian Rhapsody falls squarely in the middle.

From misfit outcast to one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet, Bohemian Rhapsody traces the meteoric rise of Queen and their extraordinary front man, Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek). Defying stereotype and shattering convention, Freddie rose to become a true icon, yet despite having the world at his feet, the rock star life and dark external influences would soon catch up with him. With Queen’s future hanging in the balance and the opportunity to perform at Live Aid too good to miss, Freddie must pull himself and the band together for the show of a lifetime and to ensure Queen’s rightful place in the history books.

With every man and his dog getting the biopic treatment these days, how on Earth it’s taken this long to get around to Freddie Mercury and Queen is anyone’s guess. The incredible, unconventional story of the legendary band and their frontman is one tailormade for the big screen, yet while it may feel like we already know everything, there’s still so much that remains untold. In fact, there’s so much gold there, condensing it all into two-hours and doing it justice was always going to be a tall order.

As with any biopic, a balance must be struck between the characters at its heart and honouring the legacy of their art, however, while Bohemian Rhapsody is a fine example of the latter, it struggles badly to deliver the former. Light on detail, this is a movie that shows little ambition to dig deep on Queen and Mercury, yet it’s one that succeeds, despite its many flaws, in capturing their essence.

Disappearing behind Mercury’s illustrious ‘stache and teeth, Bohemian Rhapsody’s success rides high on Rami Malek’s whirlwind turn as the man, the myth, the legend. Clearly unfazed by the prospect of embodying one of the singularly iconic frontmen in rock history, Malek grabs the mic, embraces the challenge, and owns the screen just as Freddie Mercury would take ownership of a stage.

As flamboyant and extroverted here as he is introverted and awkward in Mr. Robot, Malek’s performance is a tour de force that, while undoubtedly cartoonish, is both mesmerising and wildly entertaining. The mannerisms that made Mercury the icon he is are as close to the real thing here as you’re ever likely to get, yet Malek offers far more than mere mimicry.

It’s not just the mannerisms that Malek nails, it’s absolutely everything. It’s the stage presence, the accent, the external swagger, the internal fragility - the whole Freddie Mercury package. Off stage and on it, Malek embraces Freddie’s ostentatious spirit and his unwavering, experimental passion in a chameleon-like performance that will undoubtedly get the actor some love come awards season.

Bohemian Rhapsody’s crowning achievement, and one that allows Malek to embrace Mercury’s spirit in all its bombastic glory, is its masterfully recreated live performances. It’s something of a rarity for any movie to successfully recreate the live music experience and, rarer still, one that puts you right there at the gig, yet Bohemian Rhapsody pulls it off, as the cleverly staged set pieces fully immerse you in the Queen experience.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a film built entirely around its performances and while this approach is often to the detriment of the plot, it does stand as the perfect showcase for the music and Freddie Mercury. With a shooting style that’s both intimate and expansive and helped by Malek’s full-blooded on-stage antics, we’re put right there in the front row, whether it’s pint in hand at a dingy pub or with 70,000 people at Wembley Stadium.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film fails to offer anything substantial to back this up. As if in a rush, Bohemian Rhapsody’s plot races by at the speed of light, attempting to cram in as much of the band’s exhaustive history as it can, with little thought given to coherence or emotional impact.

Feeling like a rather ham-fisted television biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody is ultimately nothing more than a string of narrative moments with no depth or characterisation. In particular, the opening half an hour comes off like a bullet point list of Queen facts, rattled off with very little heart, however, as the film settles down, things gradually become more satisfying without ever offering anything particularly substantive.

We get nice little snippets of the band’s idiosyncratic recording process and their often-fraught relationship with one another, yet it really is no more than a cursory glance, leaving a lingering, unfulfilled feel to the entire thing. Worse still, Freddie Mercury’s personal story feels completely abridged, with the film sadly lacking the will or the conviction to give it the time and depth it deserves.

Of course, the issue of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality and his battle with AIDS are alluded to, yet little is done to engage with it all past the overly-simplistic approach we get. The same goes for his background and immigrant upbringing, together with the very pertinent issue of the racism he regularly encountered, which are only occasionally brought up before being swiftly swatted aside.

We may never know the role Bohemian Rhapsody’s much publicised production problems played in all this, yet it’s hard to imagine them not being a factor in some form. Between Bryan Singer’s last-minute firing and the chopping and changing of Mercury’s casting, something had to give, and the film’s incomplete feel certainly bears witness to this.

For their part, the film’s cast work well with the scraps they’re given, with Rami Malek ably supported by Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joseph Mazello who, despite some less than impressive writing, put in solid (and uncanny) shifts as the remaining members of the band. Whether on stage or in a studio, there’s certainly a nice chemistry between the four of them that lends the film some heart and the occasional moment of comedy.

They all, however, take quite a substantial back seat to Mercury, who (rather understandably) dominates the story. Yet, despite this, the one figure that comes remotely close to matching Mercury’s presence is Mary, played beautifully by Lucy Boynton. While it would’ve certainly benefitted from more depth, the story of Mary and Freddie’s relationship is squarely at the film’s emotional core and a reminder that there’s so much more to the story than we’re allowed access to.

Despite the wonderful performance of Malek and the solid cast around him, Bohemian Rhapsody continually conspires to undermine them with a bumbling script that just can’t decide what it wants to be. Ultimately, the film never truly satisfies as an exploration of Freddie Mercury as a man, nor does it adequately dissect Queen for who they were as a band.

Acting as both a greatest hits celebration of Queen and the personal tale of their larger-than-life frontman, Bohemian Rhapsody wants to have its cake and eat it; ending up somewhere awkwardly in the middle. The result is something of a puff piece for a band that clearly didn’t want the complexities of Freddie’s personal story to distract from the music.

Bohemian Rhapsody is undoubtedly a film made for the fans and that’s who will get the most out of it. As an unashamed celebration of Queen, their music, and the power of their live shows, the film really cannot be faulted, yet, as anything more than that, it’s left wanting.

Coasting along on Malek’s charm and uncanny ability to light up the stage, Bohemian Rhapsody goes all in with the live performances and, while a string of well re-enacted gigs interspersed with underdeveloped character moments does not a great film make, the sheer power of the music and stage work is just enough to redeem it.

As the focal point of the entire film, the band’s legendary Live Aid set is as glorious and powerful as its status in rock history warrants. Worth the price of admission on its own, the set will give you goosebumps as Malek struts the Wembley stage with all the pomp and swagger one would expect, if not demand.

Lasting the full 20 minutes Queen had on stage that day, the gig is both a stunning finale to a very average film that badly needed to stick its landing and a glorious reminder of the band’s place in rock lore.

Caught somewhere in no man’s land, Bohemian Rhapsody never really comes to terms with what it is. While it works adequately as a self-congratulating slap on the back for Queen and their music, it fails to juggle this with the responsibility of telling Freddie Mercury’s personal journey in the manner it demands. Skirting around the issues of race and sexuality as if they’re a distraction, Bohemian Rhapsody severely undersells Mercury’s story and while Rami Malek puts in one hell of a performance as the man himself, he is left biting the dust by a script that wants it all but doesn’t truly know what it wants to be.