One of the new movie trends of this generation seems to be the music artist biopic. Much like movies based on superheroes or historical figures, movies based around the real lives of famous musical artists seem to be the new type of movie that will in no doubt the world will be seeing a lot of later down the line, considering that two very famous musical artists, Queen and Elton John, were given their own movies, both receiving smashing success and a few Oscars to boot. Elton John’s film, named after one of his famous songs, Rocketman, was given a lot of helpful backup as the main focus of the movie, Elton John, would still be alive to help produce the film, hopefully giving an authentic look into one of the world’s most stand-out famous singers ,and unlike Queen’s film, show a side of the man that no-one knew previously and bring insight into the interesting life a man like that had. Not surprisingly, the movie has a big hit with critics, regular audiences, and especially Elton fans, garnering a similar success that Bohemian Rhapsody achieved, and maybe to the film’s chagrin, it’s not its only similarity. Taking it back all the way to his childhood, a young soon to be Elton, officially named Reggie Dwight. Growing up as an unloved child by his parents, especially hi smother (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), Reg uses his amazing talent for music to get himself into the spotlight and transform himself in Elton John. Now grown up (and played by Taron Edgerton), Elton comes across the usual struggles with that come with the music business; including several issues with drugs and corrupt business partners, as well as coping with his homosexuality and the lack of love he still fails to receive from his parents. While the movie seems to give the audience everything that they would have loved in Bohemian Rhapsody, the same can be said for all the film’s shortcomings.

It’s very bizarre to discover that even someone like Elton John doesn’t have that interesting a life. One of the strongest weaknesses of the Queen biopic is that nothing about Freddy Mercury’s life was really interesting or even that distinct from other movies that followed fictional musical stories. It’s the same here; Elton John’s road through music-dom seems to hit every familiar beat and rhythm from these stories, so barely anything feels striking or surprisingly, which is what a real-life story should feel like, especially for someone as big and impactful as Elton John. Even with that said, the film is paced in a pretty rushed fashion, so even the cliched storyline is brushed through so quickly even that stuff can’t be established and built-up properly. The movie feels like a school project slideshow of the real-life story; in that the events are almost definitely true, but the meat and realism for each moment is lacking and comes across as more phoney than believable. The movie is either too rushed to get invested in certain moments, too predictable to anticipate anything surprising happening, or too unrealistic to feel genuine. With that said, one of the few elements that feels like it was the only thing that felt distinct about him was the relationship he had with his mother, which is still a little overplayed and cartoony, but is one of only moments that feels believable and could have influenced the person he grew to be. Since Elton worked on the movie personally, it practically certain everything in it really happened, it just seems that the stuff focused on wasn’t material that no one didn’t already expect happened in his life.

Much like how some of the story is rushed and feels a bit more like a cartoon rather than real-life, sometimes the people can come across like that too. Maybe that was the direction Elton wanted the movie to take in that it was all a glamorous retelling of his life, but it doesn’t feel extravagant enough to be off-the-walls entertaining, just off enough to not feel realistic. Even if the movie is about Elton John, the movie doesn’t do a good job making him an interesting person; it’s just the typical rise to fame in the music industry story, there wasn’t that much connect ability back to him as a person to really make shine as a real person. The bad guy is also a complete cartoon; with the extremely obvious evil black suit, the fact that every line he has is just dripping with despicableness, and Richard Madden plays the character in such an obvious negative light that it’s the part where the movie really feels out of the real world. Thankfully, while most of the characters aren’t that good, most of the actors feels really engaged and dedicated to making this movie work. Taron Edgerton is a pretty great Elton John; the presence that he carries around along with the close to spot on voice makes it almost creepily close. Also, his vocals really shine in this movie, effortlessly belting most of Elton’s classic in a similar way, but still vaguely separate enough to be its own thing. Jamie Bell does a surprisingly really good job in a role that doesn’t do much overall and Bryce Dallas Howard as the mother is over-the-top, but in a memorable way.

In an over-the-top world based on an over-the-top person, it’s no surprise that such a musical man would want his movie to be a musical. This distinction actually works even if it wanted to be base don real-life, actually using most of his famous songs in a story-progressive way without it feeling too forced is honestly a good idea for a movie about himself. While it is true that most of the songs don’t really work in a musical format unless the audience pushes their acceptability really far, the musical numbers themselves clearly have a lot of effort put into them, down to the choreography, the production design, the costumes, the cinematography, the lighting, its pretty to listen to and to witness,  probably some of the best moments in the movie. While Bohemian Rhapsody felt like a clinically polished music video with everything being very stile, washed-out, shiny and professional-looking, Rocketman feels like a crazy bombastic music video, full of a lot of colors, crazy visuals, very mobile camera movements, and no restrictions on real life whatsoever. The movie from a production level in terms of music and visuals are where it really shows off its greatness, a lot of moments in the song numbers and even in regular moments are really well shot and feature some very cool visuals, going from subtly pretty, to downright dream-like. Since it’s a musical, everyone had to at least have the capacity to vocally convey music and story effectively, and the movie feels like it does that most of the time. Not everyone is perfect (Madden isn’t the best choice to give a solo to) but they all put in effort and get into it enough that it manages to work out.

Practically feeling like opposites and equals in their own right, Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman arguably share similar faults and plus, but for largely different reasons. Rocketman is a passion project by the man himself, an icon of music that everyone can get behind; he has great energy, he a great showman, his songs are all timeless, very memorable, and great to dance to, and he’s a singing legend that’s going into the hall of fame of other worldwide beloveds. Its just a shame that a man that seems amazing doesn’t have that much intrigue in his real-life and instead a story that could be predicted before even seeing it. To be far, this movie is not to show people Elton John’s past, it feels a best of Elton’s work in movie format for fans to go crazy over. While Bohemian technically works better as a film in better directing and pacing, this film is a bit less boring and not as dull looking, it has some great music numbers to watch and listen as well as a pretty great performance by Taron himself. Not a great showstopper, but at least enough music to get the rock on easy, for Elton lover it should work out fine. Maybe its enough for some to see how he’s still standing.