More often than not, stories of musicians pale in comparison to their real-life counterparts. The same cannot be said with Bohemian Rhapsody, and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury in particular. Everything he did in his lifetime was grand and this new biopic directed by Bryan Singer aims to not sell that idea short. There have already been reports swirling about some of the film’s factual representation as well as the main star’s performances as to whether or not they are preformed by him or some technical wizardry where original lyrics are used rather than Rami Malek’s voice, who plays the film version of the legendary Freddie Mercury. The fact that it’s being questioned and debated speaks to the quality of what fans are in for.

Bohemian Rhapsody follows the rise of an unknown singer in England best known as Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) from his humbling beginnings to when he got a break as the lead singer for a small band called Smile, before is ascension into stardom as the band becomes Queen. From there, the spiral downward begins and continues through many ups and downs. Similar to so many accounts from other famed singers, this story goes through many ups and downs as real life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, regardless of the success.

Let’s start with the musical aspects. Rami Malek owns the stage. It’s so hard to imagine that the guy that is best known for his role in USA’s television drama series, Mr. Robot, could have been hiding this incredible skill this entire time. Rumor is that his vocals in the movie are not solely his own, nor are they Freddie Mercury’s either. Instead, there’s been kind of a hybrid formula developed to give us a quite unique sound in that we’ve got a mixture of Malek, Mercury and Canadian singer Marc Martel to give the impressive vocal range we here. These 3 “M’s” create a sound and performance that all should love. Also starring are Lucy Boynton as Mary Austin, an almost unrecognizable Mike Myers as studio exec Ray Foster, and then there are other Queen band members Brian May (Gwilym Lee), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello). Additional actors involved are Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander and Allen Leech.

Bryan Singer plays it safe in this regard. When the idea of a Queen biopic first starting floating around, many would have assumed that an R-rating would be the way to go. I mean we are talking about a rock band in the 1970s. There are drugs everywhere, promiscuity and the assumed profanity-laden disagreements. Instead however, the fiscally responsible decision was made to tone down the stronger content and just glaze over touchy topics without putting too much emphasis on them. This would allow for a film with softer edges. The unfortunate thing is that less than a month ago, another musical movie was released without the kid gloves and had all kinds of success. Bohemian Rhapsody could have been slightly more impactful had Twentieth Century Fox decided to for a more no-holds-barred approach.

Rami Malek will rock you in a role he was born to play. Queen’s performance at Live Aid has been voted the greatest live performance in the history of rock. And Malek’s portrayal of Mr. Fahrenheit is so hot that I can’t imagine him being ignored when the time comes for Oscar nominations. Whether you’re a true fan or simply a casual moviegoer whose interest is piqued, Malek gives his heart and soul and it shows fabulously. Just as with most groups, infighting is pretty much a given but it’s how they overcome these challenges is what can potentially separate the good from the great. Queen, as a whole, had lots of drama behind the scenes with Bohemian Rhapsody only touching on portions of the tumultuous times.

From a cinematic perspective, director Bryan Singer made the correct choices in keeping a balance between the good and bad times while also being afforded the freedom to take a few creative factual liberties in order to make for more of a “Hollywood-ending film”. Regardless of how they got there, the essence of the genius of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon have been captured brilliantly and the end result is a great cinematic time. Casual fans should enjoy Bohemian Rhapsody for what it is. The majority of Queen’s more feverish fans will truly love this film while giving very high marks to Rami Malek along the way. He’s the best thing to happen to the musical group since Adam Lambert. Witness this great performance in theaters November 2nd, with early showtimes the night before.