User reviews

It's alright. I really didn't like how much of a musical it was. There was a sad scene that instantly turned into a fun and happy song, this really took me out of the movie. Another thing that felt stupid was when someone would start singing mid sentence, maybe it's just because I don't like musicals...but it was rather annoying. The music is obviously good and the acting was great there was just so many things that pulled me out of the story and got me thinking only about the songs, which is the main part but I came for a movie not a collage of music videos. The ending was pretty bland also, another sad and depressing scene turned into a bright and happy song. Then it ended, just like that. The movie is enjoyable though I just personally prefer more realistic movies such as bohemian rhapsody which was executed superbly. I can understand how and why people enjoy it as much as they do. 5/10

It is too much muscial, every 10 minutes there is a musical. It is like kind of bollywood movie. 7.3 is too much for this movie.

I'm not really sure what the point of this movie is. Half of it was happy song and dancing, half of it was sad and dramatic. It felt disjointed all the way until the rather abrupt end, when they tell you things got better instead of showing you, which was incredibly annoying. I spend almost two hours suffering through the drama, only for the happy ending to happen off screen.

However, I have to give credit, where credit is due. The acting is superb, and I'm not only talking about Taron who is deserves every superlative that has been used to describe him in this film. But also Jamie, who plays a wonderful Bernie and Richard Madden who is absolutely despicable and hate-worthy even while looking stupidly hot.

The life of music legend Elton John.

Underwhelming. I did not set my expectations very high and even then was disappointed. When this was released I figured it was an attempt to cash in on the success of Bohemian Rhapsody and make a biopic about a 1970s rock star. This despite growing up in the 70s and liking the music of Elton John. I thought Bohemian Rhapsody was excellent but just from the trailers Rocketman didn't seem to have anywhere near the same energy, profundity and solid storytelling.

And the trailer was pretty much spot-on. Rocketman is a linear telling of Elton John's life...and that's it. Director Dexter Fletcher turns it into a semi-musical but that just makes it worse. Like most musicals, song-and-dance numbers being jammed into the middle of a scene makes for jarring, clumsy storytelling and this is no different. It might have been okay if they had used the original music but instead we have actor Taron Edgerton singing the songs, and he just doesn't sound right.

There's never any spark that makes the movie interesting, Some scenes are downright clumsy: the scene that runs through the movie of John at an AA meeting seems pretty implausible and contrived and merely there as a means for John to tell his life story.

On the positive side, performances are very good. Despite his singing, Edgerton is great as Elton John and Jamie Bell puts in a solid performance as Bernie Taupin.

Rocketman, tonally it's all over the place. When it comes to making films about musicians there are generally two choices that can be made. It can either be a drama, telling the story of the musician in a realistic way or it can be a jukebox musical, where the musician's music is used to shape a fictional narrative. In this case, the film try to tell Elton John's troubled life story within a jukebox musical; and it doesn't work. One of the elements that contributed to the issue with the film's tone was the directorial choices to have so many scenes which were surreal and frankly trippy. At one point an entire room was levitating. In another scene Elton was singing while underwater, with a child in a space helmet playing the keyboard. There are many other scenes equally as weird, and each time something like this happened it completely took me out of the movie. The problem is that this movie for the most part is not fun. It's actually really dark and depressing. If they wanted to tell such a dark story they should have made this a proper drama, not a musical. In terms of the performances, to be honest I didn't find them believable. Egerton had some good moments, but it never felt like he was Elton; he was always just Taron wearing silly outfits. The supporting cast were not very good either, apart from Jamie Bell, who played Elton's song writing partner Bernie. Richard Madden as Elton's manager came across as a one dimensional villain, with no interesting character traits. In the technical department, I thought the costume department did a tremendous job in finding/making outfits which resembled many of the iconic looks Elton sported over the years. The hair & makeup team on the work they put into the movie was fantastic. Visually, the characters looked great.

So I just saw an advanced screening of Rocketman and I have very mixed options about the film.

To get the positives out of the way, I thought that Taron Egerton did a Fantastic job as Elton John, nailing both the personality and appearance. Jamie Bell also gave a solid performance as John's lyricist Bernie Taupin. All of the other performances were decent as well. The dialog wasn't bad or cringeworthy, with the exception of executive Dick James. Nothing was done POORLY necessarily, but I will say if Egerton was not in this film, I probably would have rated Rocketman a 4/10 or even a 3/10. Let me get into all of my issues with this film.

Firstly I need to mention that Rocketman is a musical, where moments of his life or feelings are related to John's many songs. I only feel the need to mention this because I feel the marketing was very misleading, convincing people that Rocketman was going to be a more conventional biopic. Now, the musical moments are done badly, but for a feature film that is about a REAL person and story, it doesn't fit well. What the writers and director were trying to go for would have made a better broadway show, instead of a theatrical release. There are also WAY too many of these musical-style moments, particularly in the final third. And to clarify, by "musical" I'm referring to a film like Moulin Rouge.

I also felt like Rocketman glossed over a HUGE amount of events In John's life such how he recorded his first few albums, how he wrote songs with Bernie, etc. They could of included a scene of Elton helping John Lennon overcome stage freight or any other interesting stories during Elton's golden era, but Rocketman flashes forward to the start of his career to when he starts to descend into drugs. The most important part of his career is pushed to the side. Another example of this involves John's wife. We don't know who she is, how she knows him, or even her name. The actress is literally given around 6 lines. So when her three minutes of screen time are up, and you find out her and John have divorced, you don't care because you learned nothing about her.

Also, going back to the musical aspect, some inaccuracies end up being raised. Like how Elton wrote Saturday's Alright for Fighting at 12 (which he didn't). I also question the idea of everyone he knew, save Taupin and his grandma, were so harsh and mean.

Overall, Rocketman isn't an awful film by any means, and with Egerton's performance and the Your Song scene, I can still recommend this to extreme John fans. Otherwise, wait to rent.

Uneven is the kindest verdict I can give to Rocketman. There are a three or four brilliant scenes where the film absolutely sparkles. And there are 30 or 40 other scenes where it slogs along clumsily and overwrought. And shockingly, the film runs completely out of storyline at least 40 minutes before it finally ends. The filmmakers desperately try to fill this extra time with endless scenes of poor Elton feeling so sad and misunderstood that only drugs and self-pity can help. And he takes ample doses of both . . . over and over . . . to the point where you will begin to roll your eyes and lose interest.

But do not despair, the movie eventually comes to an end. And when it does, you are immediately greeted by an onscreen newsflash notifying you that Elton is now sober! And what a relief you'll feel - like a double-dose of good news! Not only is Elton okay but this mess of a movie is finally over!

The music is good but you knew that going in. (It's Elton John for god's sake.) There are a couple of fantastic magical-realism scenes. (Concert at The Troubadour; suicide vision at the bottom of the pool). And there are some interesting coming-of-age, discovering-musical-genius scenes. But the vast majority of the film is insufferable whimpering: "mommy doesn't love me; daddy's so mean; no-one understands me; and you don't like me 'cuz I'm gay." All of that may be true - but none of it is as offensive as having to pay 12 bucks and sit through 2 hours of this steaming pile of self-pity.

I have to be honest and say I was disappointed with this movie.

I'm not sure why lots of reviews here are making comparisons to Bohemian Rhapsody, this is a completely different thing.

Taron was excellent, as we're most of the performers.

However it took me three sittings to get through this film. I was waiting for something interesting to happen.

To be Frank, it was depressing, really hard work and despite the occasional impressive scene, it was disjointed and certainly could've been at least 40 minutes shorter.

I wanted to live this film, but I'd have been pretty gutted if I'd have paid to see this on the big screen.

I went in knowing it wasn't gonna be an Elton John biopic, and while the lead role was casted perfectly, I wasn't overly impressed with the final production. It has its moments but overall I didn't enjoy it.

Somehow, though, the bloat is almost appropriate in a story about excesses, and the devastating pitfalls of fame. "Rocketman" portrays both poignantly, movingly, well but there's plenty of room left for a much better biopic about Sir Elton John.

Rocketman seems everything it has in the Elton John story to glitter and inspire the audience, however, it chooses to stick on Elton's childhood trauma (nobody likes me including mom and dad) than his musical prodigy. The trauma steals the spirit of almost entire movie with significant lack of character study, Elton John's included. We are bound to view Broadway-style musical numbers woven into series of fast-forwarded shots. Both Taron Egerton and Jamie Bell are fine actors, but the overall direction sacrifices the depth of its rich material and ends up turning into a longish video clip.

I had the same problem with Saving Private Ryan. Originally, I left the theater with about 20 minutes left. Took me about 3 years to finally see those 20 minutes. Sometimes, I just don't really care about the movie. That said, I don't have to like something in order to recognize how good it is. I've never been a fan of musicals. And personally, I didn't care for where the screenplay was headed pretty much from the jump. But it is Elton John and his music and story. And that Egerton kid is very talented and does justice with songs that I believe are made for anyone with a voice to sing. But he does them Elton and I have to say Taron justice. I only made it about 40 minutes in. That doesn't mean it's not a helluva a movie. Just not for me. Watch it!

As a fan of Elton John and lover of musicals, this seemed right up my street. But the film falls flat from the start. The songs are muddled in order and the facts drastically changed to suit the story - Elton's dad is made into the bad guy, the manager into a fool, and relationships are invented or ignored. Far from a candid look back on his past, Rocketman sees Elton reimagining his life. The plot is thin, the dance routines over the top, and the songs sqeezed in an attempt to compliment the story. Whilst Queen's recent biopic 'Bohemian Rapsody' packed a punch, this left me bored and unmoved. More like a long episode of Glee than a proper film. The problem may be down to the lyrics, in that they're not Elton's, they're Bernie's. Elton plays the piano and sings, but the words aren't his. Therefore, using them to tell his story doesn't really work. Recently I saw 'Blinded By The Light', the film based on Bruce Spingsteen songs; it is far superior because the songs matched the story, and the story itself was moving and character driven. This film was pointless. A listen of Elton's greatest hits album would be a much better choice.

I was expecting this to be so much better. For the amazing songs this man has created, this was a big disappointment.

Was mildly interesting for maybe the first half, but really meh afterward. Nothing magical about this film as much as I wanted there to be

I really liked Bohemian Rhapsody but this was nothing like that it's a stage musical brought to the screen. Didn't quite work for me, I really love Eltons music but just wasn't great.

Hmmmm, very scattered, unfathomable and pretentious fragmented film in epic identity crisis. Under the shadow of Bohemian Rhapsody there seems to be a onslaught of bio pics and musicals coming through theaters. This film is problematic from the get go as it tries to figure out whether it's a bio pic about Elton John, the human rock star, or a grandiose spectacle to proclaim admiration and worship of Elton John the unfathomable rock god. There are some good takeaways, some flashy sparkly cinematic tricks and musical dance choreography but the story gets lost. The whole film gets lost like one long song pieced together by songs we recognize and love but ultimately it's song without a hook. Without spoiling the film, a big show at the Troubadour is not American bandstand or BBC. I mean, really? This should be one film or another. I don't feel like I know anymore about Elton John than I did walking into the film except that he didn't write any of the songs, unlike Mercury. However, if your a junky for cover band shows or karaoke then I should just shut now, but if you're like me hearing someone sing Elton's songs like an amateur was all the fuel I needed to leave the film early. I'll go home and read his Wikipedia while I listen to his albums. My imagination is better than this half musical/ half bio pic fail. I predict 6-6.5 stars by the time it hits streaming.

Anyone expecting to see a "Bohemian Rhapsody" version of Elton John's story will be sorely disappointed. This movie has very little linear structure, and breaking out into song and dance in the middle of a scene made me feel like I was watching an episode of Glee. The other major mistake of this movie was having Taron Egerton sing the Elton John songs, rather than Elton himself. Why?

The proof is in the pudding...Bohemian Rhapsody did far better than Rocketman at the worldwide box office, despite better critical reviews of Rocketman and arguably, Elton John was a much bigger act than Queen worldwide. I would assume that future biopics of rock stars will follow the "Bohemian Rhapsody" model rather than the "Rocketman" model.

Release short after bohemian rhapsody is a wrong decision. Also, the musical part deduce marks from me, not a fan of musical. Can see the pain from his past from family but it can done better. Acting also mediocre.

It's annoying to see his self pity around his childhood when he seems to blame everyone but himself for his drug addiction when clearly he's had a privileged life. But the film was good and inspirational to the right people.

56/100

It feels silly to point out the fact that Rocketman, for most of its runtime, doesn't try anything new in the biopic genre. It seems as though the writers think we cannot complain about the literal copy and paste of the clichés taken from Bohemian Rhapsody's storyline on account of this film being "based on real-life events". But that story depends upon entirely on who's telling it...

From the "your parents have never cared about you, even when you were just a child" crowd-pleaser to the newspaper sequence where the screen just fills up with headlines about how succesfull the main character in question has become, the only few scenes where the film tries to do something new and even pay homage to Elton John's natural extravagance, an aspect I'm fond of myself, in some musical numbers have good intentions but, since that resides as the only intention the director gave them, 1. They feel soulless in the midst of all that color and energy wasted upon it, 2. They come across as INCREDIBLY cringe-worthy.

I can say I liked Egerton's performance, but it shows he didn't really know how to take advantage of a script that was working against him, can't say that I blame him for it either, though.

From there, only a few of the performances stand out to me... Some of them were EXTREMELY annoying, especially when considering that their introductions and involvements in the film could've been cut out of it in general. That also relates to the fact that I don't consider this biopic should've picked up since the beginning of John's life, it just feels like it wanted to follow that unspoken-yet-unnecessary rule biopics these days have of covering as much of the life of the artist as it can.

Rocketman may not have had the heart and guts to try something contrasting for telling the story of an artist who so naturally is, but there's somewhat of a strange -but mildly effective- charm this movie has that made it, at the very least, an enjoyable experience as a whole for me to watch.

Elton John the recording artist played a big part in my teenage soundtrack years, encompassing his acknowledged classic period from 1971-1976 so the music from this fantasy bio-pic certainly hits the spot with me. I've also seen him in concert more than once and can testify that he's a dynamite live performer. This film acknowledges both of these things but also seeks to portray Elton the human being, the repressed young gay man, born of difficult parents who discovers he has an innate talent for playing the piano and writing melodies for songs. Once he hooks up with his "brown dirt cowboy" lyricist Bernie Taupin and after the two of them struggle for a few years as hack songwriters at the beck and call of old-fashioned impresario Dick James, Elton's alter ego, the flamboyant Captain Fantastic showman duly lands and makes him the biggest act in America covering those golden years.

That success however came at a price as the lonely superstar, still struggling to come to terms with his sexuality and mind-blowing success, duly heads for the overload and binges out on drink, drugs and success. The film ends with the at last reformed John belting out his survival song "I'm Still Standing" and exorcising most of his demons although if you've ever seen the subsequent infamous "fly-on-the-wall" TV special "Tantrums and Tiaras" he's obviously still a spendthrift and subject to mood swings.

No saint is our Elton then but it is possible to feel understanding and even sympathy for the poor little mega-rich boy portrayed here. Director Dexter Fletcher is undoubtedly on John's side as evidenced by the timespan selected here, but still the film and its portrayal of superstar excess seemed a bit shallow and obvious to me.

I liked the over-the-top introduction to the movie as Elton in full regalia crashes an A.A. meeting, at which his confessions and recollections director Fletcher conveniently uses to tell his rise and fall. Never mind that the time-line is frequently skewered and liberties are taken with the detail, the film is principally out to showcase John's extensive musical library and certainly does this although with sometimes mixed results.

Taron Egerton doesn't really look or sound a lot like Elton but he wholeheartedly throws himself into the part and just about carries it off. Richard Madden gets a fairly meaty part as John Reid, Elton's cold, controlling manager and for a time, lover, Jamie Bell is okay as Bernie Taupin, but none of his great band get named in the movie and neither is any credit given to the producer of all his early records, Gus Dudgeon or his orchestrator Paul Buckmaster, which I thought somewhat remiss.

Fletcher directs the musical numbers with some flair, occasionally adapting the song lyrics to fit the screenplay, but is less certain in depicting the dramatic episodes in the singer's life, which too often flirt with cliche.

The film is certainly flash, brash and loud and Elton would probably admit that these adjectives accurately described him at the height of his success but trying to encompass so much into a mere two hour film, just too many short-cuts are taken with a different song to fit in every ten minutes or so, the characterisations, particularly Elton's, rarely run deep.

Still, the film was a good reminder of his glory days and just how high-quality his music was at that time but unfortunately I got the sense that the Elton John here lived up more to his tabloid image than his real self.