Roger Taylor slates 'sneering' critics of Queen biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody': 'F*** you all the way to the bank'

Queen drummer Roger Taylor has branded criticism of the Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody as being 'sneering and superficial'.

The movie, helmed by Bryan Singer and then picked up later by Dexter Fletcher after Singer was fired, won its star Rami Malek the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Freddie Mercury.

And while the movie made a staggering $903 million (just over £700 million) at the worldwide box office, Taylor is clearly still sore about the middling – to bad – reviews the movie got.

Speaking in an interview with Planet Rock, Taylor said that as far as reviews went, 'there were many that were kinda sneering and superficial'

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“I thought, ‘You just don’t get it, do you?’,” Taylor went on. “You weren’t moved, and whatever, but f**k you actually. F**k you all the way to the bank, actually.

“Bad reviews usually mean that it’s going to be really successful. I think people know a lot more than film critics, and the word of mouth via social media is so much more powerful than review from a guy who probably watches 40 movies a week, and has probably lost the essence of the joy of a movie.”

He's not the only member of the band to kick back against any such criticism of the movie, which landed a Metacritic score of 49 out of 100.

Guitarist Brian May accused the press of trying to influence Oscar voting with 'vitriol and dishonesty'.

“I found the public activity behind the whole awards season, and the behaviour of the media writers surrounding it, deeply disturbing,” he said in a lengthy Instagram post.

“Vitriol and dishonesty, and blatant attempts to shame and influence the members into voting the way they, in their arrogance required them to. It’s not the fault of the awards panels - they stood up well. It’s a kind of vindictive sickness that seems to have gripped public life.”

Critics of the movie found it to be a 'sanitised' version of events, a 'self-indulgent piece of revisionist history', and 'a succession of pre-digested clichés'.