Rocketman's Cannes premiere wows critics as they heap praise on lead actor Taron Egerton

Rocketman premiered at Cannes on Thursday night, and wowed critics thanks Taron Egerton's performance and the film's candid portrayal of Elton John's rise to fame.

The 'true fantasy' film depicts the musician's rise to fame in the 1970s, and director Dexter Fletcher called it 'Elton’s magical retelling of his own life'.

And early reviews from the biopic's premiere at the French film festival has shown that the film is sure to be an even bigger hit than 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody.

Daily Mail's Brian Viner gushed about the production, as he wrote: 'This is an intoxicating musical, which brilliantly uses Elton’s songs (convincingly sung by Egerton) to convey the thrilling ups and precipitous downs of his life. 

You really can’t compare it with Bohemian Rhapsody. Rocketman is on a different planet. Some of the song-and-dance routines take the breath away.' 

While he went on to add that while 'it pulls no punches' about Elton's life of debauchery in his early years as a musician, he claimed it was 'a hugely exhilarating picture.' 

David Rooney gushed about Taron's take on Elton in the film, for his review in The Hollywood Reporter, as he called the actor the 'driving force of the film.'

He added that the fact the Kingsman star's 'does his own singing with such confidence adds a whole other layer to the characterisation, appropriating the style of John without ever veering into impersonation.' 

Meanwhile Robbie Collin of The Telegraph said that Fletcher's 'fabulous' production is 'a heart-racing, toe-tapping, all-glitter-cannons-blazing triumph on its own terms.'

Impressed: David Rooney gushed about Taron's take on Elton in the film, for his review in The Hollywood Reporter , as he called the actor the 'driving force of the film'

Time Out's Philip De Semlyen opened his review by giving credit to director Dexter Fletcher, who was drafted in to finish off last year's Queen biopic after Bryan Singer was fired from the role, as he said Dexter: 'really comes of age as a filmmaker here, that any thoughts of Bohemian Rhapsody fade away in the first few minutes.'

While he said of Taron: 'If there’s one thing Rocketman does have in common with Bohemian Rhapsody, it’s a commanding central performance. 

'Like Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury, Taron Egerton combats a lack of close physical resemblance by nailing John’s physicality in micro detail: He’s a flamboyant showman onstage, but almost diffident off it, with an endearing boyish quality.' 

And Peter Debruge of Variety heaped praise on Taron, as he said that 'all white men fortunate enough to commission big-screen versions of their own life stories should be so lucky as to have someone as casually adorable as Egerton play them on screen.

High praise indeed: Time Out 's Philip De Semlyen opened his review by giving credit to director Dexter Fletcher, as he said he: 'really comes of age as a filmmaker here'

'Not because he’s an especially strong actor but because even with various unflattering wigs and a gap-toothed bridge (infinitely more convincing than the horsey dentures Rami Malek wore in “Bohemian Rhapsody”), Egerton has a hard time looking dumpy.'

And he added: 'Dexter Fletcher has fashioned an ebullient monument to pop superstar Elton John - featuring a likable turn from Taron Egerton in the lead role - that's clichéd in the telling, but gets by on the strength of his early catalog.'

Tim Grierson of Screen Daily complimented Taron as he 'gives us an Elton John who’s wilfully flamboyant but also laid low by his gnawing self-loathing.'

But added: 'Egerton nails the singer’s cocky vocal cadences and onstage theatrics, but Rocketman is far less confident when it’s telling just another story of a rock god crippled by his ego, vices and excesses.'