We had Bohemian Rhapsody - a Freddie Mercury biopic in 2018. The movie was a monstrous success at the box office, so naturally we could foresee a flood of biographical tales about singers coming in! One such attempt in 2019 is Rocketman, relating the life story of pop rock phenomenon Sir Elton John.
Unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman is a musical. Therefore, any form of exposition, time jump, inner struggles and subtext are conveyed through Elton John's original numbers, sung amazingly by actor Taron Egerton himself. This is a welcoming spin, and speaking of spin and Taron Egerton, he absolutely nailed it as Elton John! His performance is really enjoyable from start to finish! All the songs, especially 'Crocodile Rock' and 'Rocket Man' (particularly the underwater rescue) are so well recreated for the big screen experience! It's dreamy, hyperbolic and fantastical for you to lose yourself in!
On the technical side, the production design is great to say the least. Every costume and spectacle for Elton is a major attention-holder! Camerawork and colors are lively. Definitely they could have worked more on the makeup, particularly the wig for Richard Madden and old-age effect for Bryce Dallas Howard. Do keep your eyes out for the opening, as Elton slams the door, dispersing the film's title all over the place like glitters!
Unfortunately, the content here isn't as strong as the appearance looks. The plot heavily lacks external conflict to highlight the internal ones the Protagonist is going through. Essentially, in the end, we do understand that he has been trying to find love from people around him rather than from within. But, the actual physical plot to explain the internal conflicts is almost absent. There were many opportunities the writers could have explored, but instead they tamed it all off by rendering it easy. Bernie (Jamie Bell) discovering Elton's sexual orientation and Elton divorcing a woman he married for public image are examples. They could have used the juice more and explore the motivations behind, let's say, the artist's parents who doesn't care for him for instance. They could have made his rise to fame a focus instead of just newspaper highlights, and certainly could have made his walk down the path of alcoholism and substance abuse much more brutal and impactful instead of simple verbal mentions.