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Reviews
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Where is my Punjab Lasso? AND my rotten tomatoes?
To start off, I was extremely disappointed with the casting. The production team wanted a "younger, sexier" phantom. Let us not forget though, that our friend the Phantom was not a very young man and was incredibly, horrifyingly, disgustingly U-G-L-Y. By taking away that element, the story line cheapens and the plot thins. Gerard's voice is not well trained, and lacks the power and flexibility to represent an "angel of music." Emmy Rossum's voice followed suit. I've heard all about how she was in a children's chorus at the Met, but her performance was terrible. I doubt if she is a soprano. For instance, in the song "Think of Me" at the line "..trying to hard to put you from my mind" she hits a terribly off-key note. Through out the rest of the movie, her voice squawks and shifts pitch; she sings from her throat, not her chest or abdomen. If I was the Phantom, I would probably be forced to punjab her.
Let's also take note that although this story is set in France, the only person with a a french accent is Mme. Giry. For some reason, most of the other characters speak with an English accent.
As for the rest, shall we start in the beginning?
I don't understand why this movie insists on changing from BW to color. I suppose it adds clarity to time period switching, but I find the *flashblack* / *flashforward* a little tiresome. THe auction also is strange- we are left to assume that this "Madame Giry" is Meg, as the elder Giry would be older that Raoul.
The overture was the best part of this film. IT TOOK MY BREATH AWAY. To its credit, this version does have the BEST orchestrations for any ALW.
Moving along...
The date for the "Strange affair of the Phantom of the opera" is actually around 1880, not 1870 (see The Essential Phantom of the Opera by Leonard Wolf for further discussion on this matter).
For "Hannibal," I don't see why the ballet was dressed like a troupe of belly dancers. Victorian Paris would have been shocked,to say the least. And the skull seal is over-doing it, even for our man in the mask.
In "The Phatnom of the Opera" Christine's clothes are a bit...scanty. If I were to visit an Angel, I doubt I would do it in a corset and garters. And how does her eyeshadow magically change?
Then, we have some silly cape swirling and a swan bed. I don't want to talk about the swan bed...it was stupid. So was his little doll house.
The Masquerade was another excellent part of this movie. The dancing was very nice, though the man who vouges still confuses me. I liked the edition of the torture chamber (the room of mirrors). But I don't like how Mme. Giry springs our defenseless little Phantom from the sideshow. If he was a genius, he could have figured it out himself.
Next, we come to "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again." Neither Raoul (who appears in a thin dress shirt) nor Christine (who wears a very low-cut dress) seems to notice that it is snowing. And what was with the fog? We aren't in Scotland people! The rest of this scene screams out two words "ELECTRA COMPLEX"!!
"Don Juan:" I think the Phantom's mask shrunk to it's smallest in this scene, and lo and behold, when it is removed, a whole wad of his hair goes with it!
Finally, why does he break all those mirrors? 21 years of bad luck for you, buddy.
FIN
There's more nitpicky stuff where that came from too. Don't tempt me to post it all.
The Phantom of the Opera (1991)
Interesting, to say the least...
It should be noted that this is NOT the infamous musical of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
All in all it was a bit "campy"- filmed live in a Florida theater, I believe. The score is not very impressive, but the actors voices are good quality. The storyline follows truer to the novel of Gaston Lerouxwith a few liberties here and there. The character of the Daroga is in this version, much to the delight of Leroux fans! If you see this movie, you will probably not that some song titles- like "Spirit of Music"- are similar to ALW, but keep in mind that there aren't too many synonyms for phrase "angel of music."
Rent it or buy if you you consider yourself a die-hard "Phan" or if you want a little change from the ordinary.