Rocketman (2019)

As a fan of Elton John's music, I was curious to see Rocketman. I got exactly what I expected, a film that strongly follows convention. The 2019 biopic on the prolific Elton John falls short as its combination of melodrama and musical elements muddle the movie's predictable story. 

I have a big issue with musical biopics as they tend to follow predictable formulas where the protagonist begins as a nobody before the world is exposed to their amazing talents. What happens next is the protagonist becomes insanely rich but unfulfilled with their saturated lifestyles. They dive into drugs, sex and booze to find purpose where they then push people out of their life.  Something causes them to go sober and the best possible person they can be before reconciling with. This is step by step story of Straight Out of Compton, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Rocketman. Hollywood has the tendency to take popular and financially successful genres, like music biopics or superhero movies, and saturate the crap out of the industry with generic clones of the same movie. There are of course exceptions, like the Dark Knight trilogy and Bohemian Rhapsody (which had a predictable story but was held up by a great performance) but Rocketman is not as unique as it wishes it was.

My biggest gripe with this movie is the musical aspect. This movie attempts to handle some very serious topics with serious depression and suicide attempts yet the movie cuts from these dramatic moments to a song and dance number. This pulls the viewer away from the seriousness of the issue at hand. At times, Rocketman tends to force songs into spots that feel unnatural or strange. All of these issues create a muddled script and make it difficult to tell the order of the story. Rocketman also has the tendency to flip from dark to bright issues in minutes.

Taron Egerton's performance as Elton was one of the more positive things I have to say about this movie as he brings buoyant energy onto the screen. He plays the role of passion but he didn't fully convince me that he was the man himself.

Rocketman is a just decent movie that sticks to convention and suffers from a messy script. It fails to honor Elton John, treating him like a victim instead of a hero.

- GL

4 / 10
(Above) My favourite shot:

(Below) Runners-up:




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If.... (1968)

Image
Lindsay Anderson's 1968 counter-culture movie, If.... ,  is best described as messy and angry. Anderson's critique of British culture is incredibly clear. The movie's plot runs as follows: Teenage rebel Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) returns to his upper-crust English public school, caught between the sadistic older boys known as the Whips and the first-year students, known as Scum, who are forced to do their bidding. The petty thefts and anti-social behavior of Travis and his two henchmen, Johnny (David Wood) and Wallace (Richard Warwick), soon attract the attention of both the Whips and the school's out-of-touch administration and lead to an unexpected showdown. There's a lot to like and dislike about If...., so I'll start with what I thought was executed perfectly. McDowell's debut performance as Mick Travis is perfect, from the minute we meet Mick we see the mischieve behind his eyes. Dressed in all black, a whip calls him Guy Fawkes. McDowell helpe
Read More >>

Jarhead (2005)

Image
The 2005 war movie, based on a true story about the First Gulf War, is incredibly unique to others in its genre yet this may not be such a great thing. Unlike most war movies, this film takes the perspective of only one man and his first-hand experience in the war. It begins like every standard war movie yet as the movie progresses, the viewer begins to wonder where does this story lead to? We find at the very end that it leads to nothing, all of Swofford's toil and sweat were for nothing and in his words, "I never shot my rifle". In this movie's eyes, war is boring as hell and utterly pointless. Jake Gyllenhaal's acting outshines all of his fellow cast members in this movie yet even he isn't able to add flavor to this movie. He plays Swofford superbly with moments that are truly exceptional. One that comes to mind is a scene where Swofford has a mental breakdown an attacks his one his squadmates. The scene is riveting with a deranged look in Gyllenha
Read More >>

Moonlight (2016)

Image
Moonligh t blew me away.  Rarely does a movie have such polarizing reviews, splitting between both ends of the spectrum? Some claim it to be a masterpiece, a relatable look into a life of someone who smothers their identity because of a world that doesn't accept them. Others tag it as boring, an hour and a half long slog with no plot and awful acting. This disparity between reviews highlights something very important about Moonlight. If you're looking for action, for large scale drama, big booming effects or seat gripping twists and turns, this isn’t the movie for you.  Moonlight excels in subtlety. It realizes that life is not defined by the big, booming moments, but by the accumulation of small yet distinct experiences coupled with the influence of the people that surround you. For the conflict that the main character faces, this subtlety is the perfect means for conveying his struggle.  Chiron’s conflict is with identity, something that can't be
Read More >>