The Phantom of the Opera (2005)

Great Buy

Wonderful adaptation of the play. Although they make the phantom more seductive than socially awkward, the rest of the movie is very true to form. The actors have amazing voices and do a standup job! January 6, 2009

In Song

This was a good movie. Lots of singing and very long. Hard to keep up with. January 6, 2009

As good as the musical...

save your self a lot of money and watch this dvd instead of going to the musical. I actually liked the story on the dvd more. January 6, 2009

VISUALLY SUMPTUOUS, BUT ULTIMATELY SHALLOW, BANAL, AND VAPID

Joel Schumacher has created a visually sumptuous film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's mega-hit stage musical "The Phantom Of The Opera." Several musical numbers (notably "The Phantom Of The Opera," "Music Of The Night" and "Masquarade") are attractively staged for film. Emmy Rossum makes a comely Christine, and Gerard Butler is super sexy as The Phantom. Minnie Driver has several funny scenes as opera diva Carlotta, and Miranda Richardson is impressive as Madame Gury, seemingly the only soul who has any sympathy for the Phantom.
But Schumacher, Butler, Rossum, etc. can not escape the fact that Webber's musical is incredibly shallow on several levels, no matter how hard they might try. When Rossum removes Butler's mask, he looks like a guy who has been burned a bit in a fire; or perhaps had acid thrown on one side of his face. His face does not appear "distorted, hardly a face" as Christine fearfully sings. Butler's Phantom is definitely not the horrifying, hideous creature that Lon Chaney was in the original 1925 silent film classic. Butler's Phantom is a stud. True, Webber is going for musical romance here, not horror. Christine's rejection of the Phantom and her schmultzy love for pretty boy Patrick Wilson as Raoul makes her an incredibly, almost insufferably, shallow person. Could Patrick Wilson be any more bland than he is here? But no actor is to be blamed as much as Lord Lloyd Webber himself. His shallow songs (Wilson and Rossum sing the cringe-inducing love duet "All I Ask Of You," for example) render the entire enterprise banal and emotionally vapid. And "Phantom" is still playing to packed houses, regardless of who is in the cast, for something over 22 years now. What can I say to that? Well, if audiences want to eat emotional vapidity for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Andrew Lloyd Webber is definitely the go-to guy. January 5, 2009

Great Version

I loved Phantom of the Opera when I had a chance to see the play when I visited New York and when I heard the movie was coming out I had mixed feelings about it because sometimes the movies do not translate well.

I am happy to say my fears were unfounded, they did a tremendous job with this movie and I watch it over and over. Each actor/actress is superb and the musical performances are just as good as seeing it on Broadway. The effects on Broadway are carried through in well done cinema versions where movies have an advantage over Broadway.

The documentary is a definate plus for any Phantom Fan to learn more about the play itself. A great movie musical and story. January 4, 2009

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