7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.
Starring: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, Gemma JonesFantasy | 100% |
Music | 50% |
Biography | 46% |
Musical | 40% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Thai
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
If you were a nerdy little piano player in the 1970s (ahem), chances are you had at least two then newly minted Top 40 heroes to emulate: Elton John and Billy Joel. I haven’t seen any announcement of a Joel biographical film in the offing (though Billy did get his own so-called “jukebox musical” several years ago courtesy of Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out), but in Rocketman Elton John is memorialized in several not so coincidentally similar ways to how Freddie Mercury was in the relatively recent Bohemian Rhapsody. And much like Rami Malek’s eventual Academy Award winning turn in Bohemian Rhapsody gave that film much of its energy, Rocketman is similarly propelled by a viscerally involving performance by Taron Egerton as a guy who was born with the name Reginald Kenneth Dwight. Kind of interestingly, given my mention of Movin’ Out above, Rocketman assumes certain “jukebox musical” tendencies itself, with several of Elton’s (and Bernie’s of course) tunes utilized to comment on the proceedings, rather than only trotting them out for “live performance” sequences. That tends to give Rocketman at least some of the trappings of a traditional musical, but the film also wants to provide a bit of psychology (again much as was the case with Bohemian Rhapsody, and again not so coincidentally at least partially focused on matters of sexual preference).
Rocketman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Paramount Pictures with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Shot with Arri Alexas and finished at a 2K DI, Rocketman is kind of interestingly bifurcated itself in terms of some of its visuals. There's a really interesting interview with cinematographer George Richmond I found while doing background research for this review which I highly recommend to those interested in things like lenses and lighting regimens, but the bottom line here is the film tends to ping pong between its "fantasy" or perhaps "fantastic-al" (as the linked article terms them) sequences, which often offer candy colored hues and some hallucinogenic fervor, with more tamped down accounts of supposed "real life", where things like browns and beiges can predominate. Detail levels are quite appealing throughout the presentation, with an understanding that some of the freewheeling camera moves in the musical sequences especially don't offer stationary enough framings to bring along much easily observable fine detail. There's a somewhat milky look to some of the contrast in the less flamboyant moments of the film.
Rocketman features an extremely effective Dolby Atmos mix which takes full advantage of all the surround channels for the often fantastically energetic musical sequences. Even in some of the more "introspective" sung moments, immersion is quite impressive, with clear wafting of both instrumental underpinnings and vocals floating in and through the soundstage. Crowd noises in clubs and concerts also spill impressively around and at times over the listener. Fidelity on the nicely "reconstructed" songs (Egerton evidently did his own singing, and is quite good) is always superb, and dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout.
As might have been gleaned from my opening statement above, I was indeed a nerdy little piano player in the 1970s and I completely idolized both Elton and Billy, along with a host of other fantastic keyboard artists whose music was featured prominently on the radio in those days. Back in those perhaps more innocent times, I certainly never thought about any artist's personal life all that much, and my hunch is a lot of other fans never did, either. As such, psychologically ruminative efforts like Rocketman may strike some as needless, cathartic to their subjects perhaps but maybe not to the audience. That said, Rocketman has a ton of fantastic music, some artfully staged song and dance sequences, and at least the general outlines of Elton's amazing life and career. Egerton is first rate as Elton, and he may be offering yet another analog between this film and Bohemian Rhapsody by scoring a Best Actor Academy Award nomination next year. Though not a self avowed armchair psychoanalyst, I was indeed rolling my eyes a few times at the silly psychobabble and other melodrama that sometimes informs this feature, but that said I was never less than completely entertained by this film. With caveats noted, and with an appreciation for solid technical merits and a nice slate of supplements, Rocketman comes Recommended.
2019
2019
Plus Bonus Digital Movie 'Almost Famous'
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