Centered around the formation of the band, Queen, the film starts off toward Freddie Mercury’s later life, where he is preparing for a concert. Then it switches to the year 1970.

Freddie, who was then Farrokh Bulsara, works at Heathrow Airport handling luggage. He also lives with his parents and sister. His mother and sister seem sweet. But his dad is quite strict.

At some point, Farrokh goes to a pub and sees the music group, Smile, perform. Then he runs into this beautiful woman, Mary Austin, and gets to know her.

Farrokh also meets some other guys, who eventually form his band. There is Roger Taylor the drummer, Brian May the guitarist, Tim Staffell the bassist. And Farrokh is the lead vocalist.

Farrokh also spends some quality time with Mary. For example, he invites her to his family’s home for her birthday.

Sometime later, he also does her. Then, to her surprise, he proposes to her. But his bandmates come into his home, making the situation more awkward since both Mary and Farrokh are naked under blankets.

Farrokh and his band perform in different areas of Britain. They also get a new bassist named John Deacon.

Farrokh has bigger dreams for his band. He even sells the van to make money for a record album.

Once that succeeds, Farrokh changes his name to Freddie Mercury and calls his band Queen. Not only do they tour locally, but also overseas in different parts of the United States.

They even get a manager named Paul Prenter. Shortly after, Queen appears on Top of the Pops, which introduces their first hit, “Killer Queen.”

Five years have passed, and it’s now 1975. Queen is meeting with someone who is playing classical opera music. This inspires them to produce the song, “Bohemian Rapsody.”

Unfortunately, the song displeases the public, especially because it’s over 5 minutes long. And radio stations usually have a 3 minute-limit per song.

But surprisingly, it turns around, and “Bohemian Rapsody” becomes a huge hit. Then Queen goes on a world tour.

Paul is sexually attracted to Freddie. He has an affair with him—which Mary finds out about. Of course, she is unhappy.

Freddie comes out as bisexual to her. But she sees that as being similar to homosexuality and breaks up with him. Yet she doesn’t mind being just friends with him.

Queen continues to tour and succeed through the early 80s. Freddie also has a new look. He has cut his long hair short and grown a mustache.

Regardless of their fame and fortune, though, the members of Queen begin to fight a lot, including Freddie. Freddie also discovers that Mary has a boyfriend.

Not long after, while meeting with her, Freddie learns that she is pregnant. He leaves her house.

At a meeting with his band, Freddie and the others practice a special beat with claps. This leads to creating the song, “We Will Rock You.”

However, Paul’s attraction to Freddie is making things worse. Freddie also finds out more about his sexuality.

He hosts a party and dresses as a king. He ends up being attracted to a male waiter there.

Sadly, stakes are rising. Freddie gets into fights with Paul and his band. He also fires John.

What will happen next?

Despite being over 2 hours long, this movie kept me engaged all the way through. The pacing was fast and the scenes switched quickly for the most part. But there were a few exceptions of scenes that went on for a little too long.

The music made the film more exciting. It wasn’t exactly a musical. Some songs were played in the background, and some were sung by the characters.

I admired Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury, even though his singing voice did differ a bit. But that is not a big deal.

I found it interesting that Paul looked a lot like Freddie with the hairstyle and mustache. I sometimes couldn’t tell them apart—except for their accents. Freddie was English, and Paul was Irish.

While on the topic of hair, I will admit that I had trouble keeping track of all the bandmates since their hair looked too similar. Yes, long hair was popular on men in the 70s since it was the hippy period. And it may have been accurate for the real Queen members. But it was still difficult for me to identify the men, other than Freddie or Paul.

A lot of this film was fictionalized, according to Wikipedia. And both critics along with the general public criticized it for that. That includes the songs and when they were released.

But the changes were made for a dramatic effect. And the film is almost 80 percent accurate, according to screenwriter Anthony McCarten.

Although I enjoy Queen’s music, I am not that bothered by the fact that a good amount of this movie is inaccurate. But I will say that if you know little to nothing about Queen, then this film may be misleading.

Yet I still enjoyed it. It was a good watch with fantastic music and lots of tension.

Note that this movie is rated PG-13 for language, sexual content, and smoking. I recommend viewers be at least 12 to see it.

Anyway, I give Bohemian Rapsody 4 out of 5 stars.