Rocketman (2019)
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Rocketman Movie Review
Rocketman is a 2019 biographical musical film directed by Dexter Fletcher and starring Taron Egerton. It’s not a great film.
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“Real love’s hard to come by.
So you find a way to cope without it“
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This is a biopic about Elton John and it specifically focuses on his early years, his relationships and in particular his drugs and alcohol problem. So in the regard of that last part, it’s just another biopic about a struggling musician who tries to recover from those obsessions. I found those elements particularly boring.
It’s the first ever major, non-indie film to feature gay male sex, and that scene was memorable, but I personally wanted more from those relationships and his love life. The film focuses so heavily on the music part of his life that it personally got me rather bored.
That’s because I am not an Elton John fan nor am I a rock music fan by any stretch of the imagination. And the decision to turn this into a musical thus backfired for me personally as I clearly have no interest in his music. I only like two or so of his songs, and the rest are not my cup of tea.
But those musical sequences are objectively problematic, and not just a matter of taste. I am of course talking about the feel of the movie which is very much that of a music video. People jut burst into song, and yes some are connected to the story, but for the most part it was just an excuse to highlight all of his hits, and thus the flick had very little of true substance.
I found Taron Egerton’s performance solid. He’s not bad in the role and is serviceable and physically somewhat reminiscent to the man, but overall he did nothing of true caliber in his work here, and a better actor could have made this portrayal more memorable. The standout parts of the movie are his friendship with his producer, which was wonderful.
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Rocketman has some good dialogue and some scenes are very emotional, especially those near the end. Yes, the third act is the best part of the movie and the only one which had some levity to it, but the rest of the film is standard straightforward biopic and an overly extended, over-the-top music video that mostly went nowhere.
Rocketman is certainly infinitely better than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, there is no question about it. But it’s still not a particularly good movie by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, the third act has some levity to it and it’s technically very well made, but most of the movie felt like a standard biopic about a struggling musician and the majority of the songs bored me a lot. It’s just an over-the-top music video with very little of actual substance to it.
