My Review of 'Rocketman'

Rocketman came out not too long after Bohemian Rhapsody. Both are about flamboyantly gay musicians making it big in the music industry with tons of drugs, sex and underhanded people. The fact that the characters of these two movies are so similar and that the movies came out so close to one another entails that comparisons will be made, but these two movies are very different from one another.

Bohemian Rhapsody concentrated on the motivations of Queen's classic hits, whereas Rocketman focused more on the motivations of Elton John. Freddie Mercury's motivations were obviously a main concern in Bohemian Rhapsody but I found that that movie focused more on his relationship with his band and how they created their music. In Rocketman, Elton has a different sense of discovery about himself. He's looking for closure in his life and goes about it in all the wrong ways. I guess you can say the same in Bohemian Rhapsody, but Elton didn't have the tragic ending that Freddie Mercury did. Elton went on a different path and you'll see how different that path was in this movie.

This movie is also told in a different manner. Rocketman is actually a musical. The characters will go into song and dance in the middle of certain scenes all of a sudden. With the costumes that Elton John used to wear and the music he produced it became apparent to me that this was the logical way of telling the story of Elton John. It only makes sense.

The story will dip a little into his childhood and then immediately go into his life as a young adult trying to make a name for himself in the music industry. It's kind of a really weird pace, and in the beginning I felt that some of it was rushed through. The pacing smooths out when he's in adulthood and starts to become a star.

The actor who plays Elton John, Taron Egerton, did an amazing job imitating Elton John. I think he actually sings in the movie with his own voice and it even sounds like Elton John. His mannerisms were so spot on that I could have swore it was the real thing in a few scenes. It was truly uncanny what they did with the makeup and wardrobe for this movie.

I'm not the biggest Elton John fan only because I haven't heard too many of his songs in the past, but even I recognized a few of the songs that were being played in this movie. It's astonishing how many songs they crammed into this movie. I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of the Easter eggs sprinkled throughout the movie that true fans would come to appreciate. I would say I still enjoyed the music in this movie. It also made me interested in hearing the rest of Elton John's catalog of hits.

I watched this movie with my girlfriend, who is a huge Elton John fan. She was humming and singing to every one of his hits. She would be telling me the background of each of the songs and about certain situations that Elton John was going through in the movie. So I didn't lose out too much except I don't know how the songs sound without her dubbing her voice over the actual music.

Overall, I would say as a non-Elton John fan, I still really enjoyed the movie. The thought and effort put into this movie are evident and took my breath away. It was an entertaining movie to watch and brought me interest into listening to more of his music. I would have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. It goes without saying that if you are a fan of Elton John, this is a must-watch and you don't need me to tell you that this will be a 10 out of 10 movie for you as a fan.