Can you feel the MEH

So, I was forced to watch the Lion King remake yesterday. I say forced because the offspring wanted to see it and I had to thus, sit through it. Given a choice I would have given this one a wide berth.

Having now seen the movie I rate it U for Unnecessary.

This one was completely and unabashedly a money grab for Disney. Lion King is already an amazing story. And unlike earlier remakes - like Jungle Book which I really enjoyed - this particular rehashing adds nothing new to the story. Why do we need a shot for shot remake of a movie that is already brilliant?  Where in the original we had the expressive, facially emotive cartoon characters we are now given photo realistic animals trying to talk and it just doesn't work. There's a moment in the movie where young Simba cries "Noooo" and it just ruins what should be the most poignant scene of the movie.

Technically speaking, the 2019 Lion King is a masterpiece. It's awe inspiring- from a visual and design point of view. Hands down some of the best computer generated imagery out there. Kudos to the team that worked on it in that aspect. But oh dear, it's so woefully inadequate in every other aspect.

One of these things is not like the other

"But what about the kids?" I hear you cry. "Surely it's nice for the kids to be able to have a new version to watch?". No, I reply. Let them watch the cartoon. That's the beauty of movies- it's not like theatre- as long as you have it on [insert medium of choice] you can keep watching them forever. And it's not like this story is one that would ever date. This new version bored me to death and the only refreshing thing was Timon and Pumba riffing new dialogue.

Before going in to watch this, the only thing I thought might be this movie's saving grace was John Favrau directing. Like I mentioned above I loved his version of the Jungle Book - which one would argue was more an actual 'live remake' in that the main character was a real live actor. Also it wasn't a take for take remake, and all the changes were for the better. In the 2019 Lion King the main change seems to be that the heart of the movie has been supplanted with a cash register. 

Rocketman - that fuse ain't burning down

Taron in one of his most Eltoniest get ups

Rocketman, coming pretty soon after Bohemian Rhapsody, makes a comparison between the two inevitable. Thank the gods that this one they got right. Bohemian Rhapsody played out like a standard biopic - very reminiscent of Dewey Cox in fact - as more than one reviewer mentioned. Rocketman is a fantastic musical which doesn't necessarily follow a standard this happened, and then this happened, format. It does follow Elton's life for about two decades in a somewhat linear fashion but the story unravels as moments rather than a sequence of events. And each of these moments is either lovingly cradled or exuberantly paraded using one of Elton's songs rather brilliantly sung by Taron.

Taron Egerton is the absolutely heart and soul of the movie. As the lead, I suppose that's expected but he so amazingly embodies Elton that it's beautiful to watch. It's not a mimicry - even when he sings Taron doesn't try to copy Elton's voice. He sings like himself (with Elton's blessings) giving each song the emotional drive it deserves to service that particular scene in the movie. So you will get a gentle, hesitant, loving rendition of Your Song and then you will get a snazzy jazzy let's get things rolling version of Honky Cat. The fact that Taron sings the songs in his own way is a good thing because his singing voice is different to Elton's - not as strong for one thing - and had he tried to ape Elton's voice it would have sounded forced. He sings in a way that's true to his own voice and that works really well.

Blatantly stolen (because look at that face) from Vogue, April 2019 (Photographed by Anton Corbijn)

As much as I admired Rami Malek's dedicated take on Freddie, it always felt very caricature-ish. The humongous teeth, the fact that he was so small, it just felt so jarring and kept lifting me out of the whole experience. The only saving grace the movie had was the music - and that was also a stage performance type of affair.

In Rocketman the whole rehab story telling device could have come off as hackneyed. But thankfully it works. Everything just gels. It's no secret that Dexter Fletcher took over at the tail end of BOhemian Rhapsody after Bryan Singer left. But given what he has done with Rocketman it's clear that he had very little creative leeway with Bohemian Rhapsody. It just goes to show what effect outside control has over the final outcome of a movie. It's evident that Queen and Elton must have had very different ideas about what they want said in their respective movie. Elton fought for the R rating and a near depiction of what his life really was back then (proper sex, drugs, rock and roll). And while Freddie's life must have been as way out there, very little is depicted in the film, which is more a vehicle for the music of Queen than an actual biopic. It's a pity, because I would love to see a proper Freddie Mercury story. Maybe Sacha Baron Cohen would have made it. We will never know.

Awwwwwwww. These two.

It's been a while since Elton was putting out new music all the time and you tend to forget what an absolute star he is. At 72 he is still a tour de force at the piano  - you only have to watch him in that now famous duet at Cannes when he and Taron sing Rocketman. Taron can sing but Elton, hoo boy, that's proper star power.
Roketman is one of those movies that I could have just kept on watching, and watching for as long as the music lasted.