Is Elton John movie ‘Rocketman’ worth watching? Here’s what the reviews say
Rocketman is released in UK cinemas this week and the first reviews are in.
The “epic musical fantasy” movie is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, starring Robin Hood actor Taron Egerton as a young Elton John.
Watch the trailer:
Telling “the uncensored human story of Elton John’s breakthrough years,” the movie also stars Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), Richard Madden (Bodyguard) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World).
We’ve rounded up a selection of reviews to help you decide if you’d like to watch it:
“Taking the old-fashioned highs of an MGM musical and pairing them with the deep lows of an addiction drama, Rocketman is a turbo-charged rock fantasia that pushes hard against the boundaries of the medium as it zips through the first four decades of Elton John’s life.
“The songs explode from the screen, time jumps catapult the story forward with exhilarating élan and even the emotional stuff lands, for the most part. ” ★★★★ – Time Out
“Taron Egerton excels as the introverted extrovert.” ★★★ – The Independent
“…even though it pulls no punches about his reliance on drugs and booze, his bulimia, his sometimes epic bad behaviour – much of it fuelled in those early years by agonies over his sexuality – Rocketman is a hugely exhilarating picture.” ★★★★★ – The Daily Mail
“The title of Rocketman is appropriate in that this boldly unconventional portrait of Elton John — charting the parallel tracks of his meteoric rise to superstardom and his simultaneous descent into an abyss of loneliness and addiction — has a spectacular launch, all engines blazing …
“It’s largely to the credit of star Taron Egerton, who leans fearlessly into the role’s wild excesses, that the movie remains airborne.” – The Hollywood Reporter
“…a heart-racing, toe-tapping, deliriously entertaining triumph.” ★★★★★ – The Telegraph
“At its best, the film is happy both to revere its hero and to take the mickey – to heap praises on his musical brilliance one minute, and to make cheeky, sweary jibes at what a prat he is the next.
“When it achieves that balance, Rocketman is irresistible: a foot-stomping, big-hearted comic epic that should push Fletcher on to the directors’ A-list, and push Elton John’s albums back into the charts.” ★★★★ – BBC
“Rocketman is a sucrose-enriched biopic-slash-jukebox-musical hybrid which sometimes feels like it should be on the Broadway or London West End stage – and very possibly will.” ★★★ – The Guardian
“…Rocketman isn’t really about Elton as a musician. Nearly everything it has to say on that subject has been better expressed in the countless rock ’n’ roll biopics that have come before.” – Variety
“A sequin-encrusted delight. On paper it reads like a by-the-book biopic; on screen it explodes with the kind of colour and energy that only Elton John himself could invoke.” ★★★★ – Empire
Rocketman lands in US cinemas on Friday 31st May.
The soundtrack album for Rocketman is available on Amazon.