Rami Malek is transcendent as Freddie Mercury and he does a great job of carrying the film on his slender shoulders. He is in almost every scene and if he felt any pressure, his performance doesn’t show it. He is so natural in the spot light and the camera loves him.

The dramatic structure of the film is so well thought out that even with the warts and all retelling of Mercury’s life’s story, it feels more accomplishment than tragedy. You feel the loneness Mercury felt along with the successes and the behind the scenes tales about the making of those iconic songs is fascinating.

In what is turning out to be a bumper year for films about music, Bohemian Rhapsody is a must see. Not just for those anthemic songs either, it’s a compelling human story told with all the colours of the rainbow.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/BohemianRhapsodyMovie

X-Men: Apocalypse will apparently bring to a close the early and formative story of the X-Men and it’s been a bit of an uneven ride. It started with the youth oriented X-Men: First Class (which followed in the steps of the first adult X-Men film by doing a good job of establishing the characters) then built more momentum with the hybrid X-Men: Days of Future Past (which had a more involving storyline) and then squanders most of that momentum with this latest film.
 

 
Director Bryan Singer seems to have been too easily seduced by all the toys in his toy box. With all the visual effects available to the modern director, Singer ends up throwing so many wow visual moments at you, Professor Xavier (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and the rest of the crew just get lost in the shuffle. Even new baddie Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) can’t really transcend the makeup and bombast.

Seen in isolation, X-Men: Apocalypse is a bit disappointment but watching this as the end of a what is a quite engage trilogy might be a more fulfilling experience.

Rob Hudson
www.foxmovies.com