Rocketman Review: 8 Ups & 2 Downs

Downs...

2. It's A Little Corny In Places

Director Dexter Fletcher takes such an exuberant approach to helming this movie, and 90% of the time it has an entrancing, even hypnotic effect, but there are certainly occasional times where it traipses into slightly cringe-worthy, over-familiar musical movie formula.

It's important to note that Rocketman is far more of a stagey, elaborate Musical-with-a-capital-M than Bohemian Rhapsody ever was - which Fletcher also co-directed - and though this results in some staggering song-and-dance sequences, it also sometimes turns out a tad too obvious.

An early sequence set to "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", for instance, is framed by a bar brawl that's sure to evoke guffaws if not groans and eye-rolls from viewers, even if it's thankfully a fleeting indulgence at most.

For the majority of the film's runtime Fletcher harnesses the high-camp in just the right way, but every so often, you might feel your toes curling at the daft theatricality.