A massive Elton John fan since I was five, looking forward to seeing this tonight. So I figured “well, let’s start the thread!”
We’re going tonight too. I’ll check back tomorrow.
Uh-oh.
15 minutes to start, my daughter and I are the only ones here.
Well…
Um…
Ok, so if you are looking for a biopic, you will be sorely disappointed.
If you are looking for an Elton John version of Across the Universe, with a dash of Moulin Rouge! thrown in, this is the film for you.
If you like histories which play loose with the details while getting the overall gist of the story kinda correct, this one’s for you. If you are not interested in seeing a 12yo Elton John belt out Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, then you may wish to catch this on Netflix.
If you’re more interested in Elton John’s psyche than his music or career, this is the film for you.
So… for what the producers (including EJ) wanted to show (using Ebert’s rule*), this one probably gets an 8.5/10. If I were to judge it based upon what I was hoping to see, probably a 6/10.
*Measuring the movie by it’s own measure (does this film do what the creators intended) and not by the reviewers measure (does this film do what I want it to do).
I agree with JohnT. We liked it. Actually, I’d give it 8.5 on both scales. It was fun and different enough that it held my attention. The small crowd at our theater loved it enthusiastically.
I loved it, and would give it a 9. The music and the acting was great. The songs were cleverly woven in to the story, and didn’t feel forced. It was much better than I expected.
A local reviewer repeatedly stressed that it is a musical, not necessarily a biopic, and you should have this perspective going in.
He loved it.
mmm
After some thought, going to bump up my score to a solid 8.5 as well. What the film brought out to me was new interpretations (and likely accurate ones, given EJ was an exec producer on this film) to old favorites. And because it wasn’t the movie I expected doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good… even great… effort.
You had to kill the movie you expected it’d be to enjoy what they wanted it to be.
Well I just saw it and I loved it. Of course it helps that I’ve been an Elton John fan since 1973 (the first album I ever bought was his original greatest hits).
The only thing that disappointed me was that it ended too soon. I’d like to see a Part II that covers the second half of Elton’s life. But that said, the music was great, the story was great, the acting was great. I’d give it a solid 9.
I just saw it and liked it quite a bit.
I really liked it. I thought Taron Egerton was great as Elton, and everyone else was great too. I thought doing it as a musical was a clever and fun way to do the movie, and I thought the musical numbers were well done.
Also, it’s hard for me not to compare it to Bohemian Rhapsody, and in comparison it is even greater. Rocketman hit some of the biopic beats, but the musical format allowed more flexibility and for it to not feel as predictable, compared to BR which felt like it was using the same template that the parody movie Walk Hard used.
If they make Rocketman 2: The Bitch is Back, then I will be there on opening day.
Been a fan since I was in grade 5 (back in ‘75). Went with the family to see it on Friday night. Very impressed. The musical numbers seemed a little strange—more like Across the Universe than BoRhap. Accepted that and it was quite interesting. They spent a lot of time exploring EJ’s relationship with Bernie Taupin, which was nice, but I wish they had spent time on EJ’s relationship with his band—Dee, Nigel, Davey and Ray—the classic lineup, as they were as much part of those greatest hits as anyone else was. They didn’t even get an honourable mention by name. I guess they want to focus on EJ/Reggie’s neurosis. Still, an excellent movie and a great creative effort. 8/10
Great movie. Great music. I really enjoyed it. I was afraid at first when I heard that the actor would be singing (as opposed to using real EJ recordings), but the singing was great.
So, my daughter and I watched the original I’m Still Standing MTV clip from the 80s, during which she remarked “Elton John is the straightest thing in this video”. And… yeah, she was right.
In 1983, when that song and video came out, I was 18, and pretty much clueless about homosexuality. In my eyes, at that time, that video looked very “European,” but I had no idea about any other overtones.
Now, I watch it, and I have the same reaction that your daughter did. 
I saw it Saturday. I liked it, but I didn’t dig the “musical” aspects of it (not the music, I mean the parts that made it a musical! :D)
Seemed like the music numbers didn’t add anything to it - I mean, straight up EJ stage performances are pretty great. Not sure why they felt they needed to add in dancers and non-sequitors.
I thought the leads did look a lot like Elton and Bernie. And I loved the way they portrayed their friendship, and I love that Elton was a big part of making the movie.
I was shocked at how young his mother always seemed to look. But it’s also hard for me to see Elton as my parents’ age (which he is) because of his premature hair loss. And his mother is younger than my grandparents. Anyway, I looked up his mother after the movie and she indeed was and looked and acted that young. In 2002 at the age of 77 she still looked great!
It kinda seemed to me like the movie was just a bunch of famous Elton outfits/images strung together in a moving picture.
But, I mean, he has an interesting life story (and it kept getting more interesting after the movie timeline ends) so it was a movie worth watching. I’d give it like a 7/10.
I’m not a big EJ fan, for what it’s worth. I think his radio singles are fantastic and iconic but other than his first Greatest Hits album, I don’t have any of his stuff. I’m just a typical music appreciater.
Mrs. FtG wanted to see it. I sort of did. So we saw it. Oh, well.
It’s a movie with some poorly redone Elton John music. Their version of Bennie and the Jets was particularly awful.
The problem with a biopic that is assisted by the subject is that it’s not objective. It paints an idiosyncratic picture. There was remarkably little real depth to it. Some very stagey stuff, but that doesn’t work for me.
Like many bad musicals, you end up with basically a simple, short film padded with songs. I thought that La La Land was basically a 20 minute story. At least Rocketman was more like a half hour.
The only interesting character in the whole thing was Bernie Taupin.
But it had SYMBOLISM!
[spoiler]Elton in therapy starts off in a devil’s outfit. After a bit he tears off the horns. Then the outfit transforms until it winds up as a normal patient thing.
Wow, I am so … not impressed.[/spoiler]
And during the closing credits they had to pat themselves on the back with how “authentic” they got things. Meh.
Give it one and a half duck suits. (Which they of course didn’t use.)
Just watched it on DVD. I would’ve preferred something closer to a conventional biopic. The first few production numbers were a lark, but around the middle of the movie, I began fast-forwarding through them to get back to the “story”.
In the film, EJ went from struggling writer to huge star in about 5 minutes of screen time. I would’ve preferred they explore that process in more detail. He also went from a shy, nervous, self-conscious persona to flamboyant, outrageous stage performer almost instantly, and again I would’ve like to see more about how that happened.
Eh, I give it 6/10.