Masters Dissertation Research: Rocketman (2019)

Rocketman (2019) tells the story of musician and British icon, Elton John. Anyone who knows me will know that I adore Elton's music, however, I went into this movie knowing a surprisingly small amount about him and ended up learning a hell of a lot.

I feel like I must start by explaining that most of my issues with this film come from a slight confusion on my part. I believed, upon buying tickets, that this would be a film like Bohemian Rhapsody (which I reviewed here) where the music was used not as a story telling device but remained a focal point of the film, however, Rocketman surprised me by being more of a musical. In fact, I would be interested to see whether it would eventually end up as a stage show, which I would definitely go and see.

The film was shot beautifully, there is no denying it, and the acting was phenomenal from start to finish, with Taron Egerton bringing the character to life incredibly. It seems that there is nothing, or no one for that matter, that Egerton can't put his hand to. Richard Madden and Jaime Bell also performed brilliantly and helped to bring this story to life.

In the beginning of the film there is a shot that left me floored, with the colour editing used to perfection to help highlight the brightness that comes with Elton and his life. I was honestly stunned by how good it looked. Obviously, this was helped by the incredible work done by the costuming department, which completely outdid itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in Elton John and his music.