Bryan Singer’s new movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, captures the history of the band Queen, specifically lead singer Freddie Mercury, and the role he partook in the band.

It begins as Mercury joins the band back in 1970. It follows the journey he takes with the other members, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon, and the ups and downs that any band together for over a decade would have.

The movie is shot through Freddie Mercury’s perspective, performed by Rami Malek, and gives a detailed and accurate portrayal of him and the life he led. All the main actors did justice to their characters in the way that they acted and how the band interacted as a group, with jokes and friendly jeers as a family like theirs would have had. The movie brilliantly showed Freddie’s sense of fashion with a crazy outfit in almost every other scene and flamboyance on stage that captivated the audience who was already wondering what he’d do next.

However, there are key moments in Mercury’s life that are glossed over, like his sexuality. There are rare moments that we see Mercury expressing homosexuality or his fight against AIDS, which came in much later than the movie had stated.

The plot is sufficiently captivating in its way of bringing in real life villains throughout Queen’s legacy. Some twists are a little more obvious than others but are engaging enough for the audience to take interest in.

There are jokes that go alongside some of the darkest points of the film, but a lot of it is played up for Hollywood standards. Along with that, the timeline is warped in order to fit 15 plus years of the band’s life into two hours and 15 minutes which results in certain facts in being false or just misleading.

The best thing to come out of the movie, in my opinion, is the concerts which were filmed with incredible accuracy and could be easily mistaken for the original recording. Many of these concerts gave me goosebumps. The effect of a crowd of 1,000 chanting along to Queen’s songs with a surround sound system is powerful and used very well throughout the movie.

The reason why these concert scenes are so powerful is in the way they’re shot. A key concert for the band is when the audience first sang their lyrics back to them. It’s shown on a shoddy little television where the awe in Freddie’s face can still be seen in grainy quality as thousands of people recite their lyrics. This can be heard in the background of a serious conversation between him and his wife, Mary Austen, contrasting a gratifying moment with one of the most upsetting ones in the lead singer’s life.

The Live Aid concert has incredible camera angles that capture another significant moment in rock history. It’s done beautifully.

The only qualm in its cinematography is its overuse of zooming in and close-ups in order to emphasize a certain emotion from that scene.

The soundtrack is a mix of the original recording of Freddie Mercury’s voice, Rami Malek’s voice, and another artist, which holds authenticity while still being different.

I’d give Bohemian Rhapsody a 7/10. It’s is a great movie to watch if you love Queen’s music and want to see a well-written and charming film, but if you’re expecting complete accuracy in the depiction of the history of Queen and an in-depth look at Freddie Mercury then this is not the movie for you. If you plan on watching it, see it in theaters before it’s too late to experience the concert scenes with a good surround sound system.