For any Phantom fans

shadow dancer · Post by **shadow dancer** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:20 pm

(of the Opera) that is

I have always been a fan of the novel by Gaston Leroux as well as the Broadway production and several of the movies: especially the one starring Lon Chaney and the CBS made for television one in 1990.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera is being released in theatres in December 2004. The website along with trailer are here.
http://www.Phantomthemovie.com/

This is the first I've seen of the website and trailers. I'm thrilled its using Lloyd Webber's music, but I've heard nothing else about it as far as the film staying close to Webber's plot, etc. Has anyone else heard much about this film?

satanskitten · Post by **satanskitten** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 1:00 pm

I've known about this one for several months now and I absolutely cannot wait. I just pray it doesn't turn out as cheesey as the video version of Cats. Then again it's Phantom and I will love it.

Kamivox · Post by **Kamivox** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:17 pm

Is anyone afraid that Joel Schumacher is doing this movie?

"The Phantom shouldn't be a dark character. Let's give him a neon green mask and cape!"

Zeo · Post by **Zeo** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 8:23 pm

I boght the silent 1925 version with Lon Chaney at Wal-Mart for $1.00. heh.

The Fallen · Post by **The Fallen** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 4:31 pm

Release date on this is Dec 22nd, can't wait

elasticwings · Post by **elasticwings** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 9:00 am

I don't know. From what I've read so far, looks like Joel sucked at this one too. http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0900ente ... _page.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 046.htm?1c

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/ ... 6299c.html

Post by **Bone** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 11:03 am

Saw it last night heres my views:

The Costumes were beautiful, as was the cinamatography was amazing, the sets were amazing. Wonderful eye candy!

Now to the bad stuff... Gerard Butlers (the phantom) vocals probably made dogs within a mile of the theatre want to drive icepicks into their ear drums. Not even obviously heavy reverb and echo placed on his voice to help fill it out, did nothing more than accentuate just how bad and how little of a vocal range he had. Add to that about 0% acting ability. I felt neither fear, anger love or empathy for Gerard....Only the desire to find some ear plugs.

Emmy Rossum's voice while capable of the role of Christine Daae, failed in passing any emotion into her voice. Her facial acting thru so many of her close-ups came across more as a deer caught in the spotlights of the camera than a woman in love, in fear or much of really anything.

If your a Phantom fan... My advice best advice is don't go. IF you feel you must see this one take an iPod with the Sarah Brightman/ Michael Crawford sound track on it and block out all the bad singing, at least that way you might be able to enjoy the eye candy without cringing and wanting to run from the theatre every time the phantom opens his mouth....

shadow dancer · Post by **shadow dancer** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 2:50 pm

I have typically always been very sympathetic to the Phantom as a tragic figure in any of the more romantic versions of this tale, which is what the 2004 release was supposed to be. Personally, after realizing that his character wasn't going anywhere, I got quickly to the point of "Just kill him already and let us out of the theatre." The mystery, allure, tragic, etc. parts mixed with half-genius, half-madman parts of the Phantom's character were just non-existent.

On another note, and call me a little weird on this one, but I didn't think the Phantom looked nearly grotesque enough without the mask. This is a man that they talk about women and men fainting in front of him due to his grotesqueness and a man that was supposed to attract the masses for a freak show. Its also a man whose mother couldn't even look at him, and the first thing she made for him when he was born was a mask to cover his face. Having seen the makeup job done on Michael Crawford for Broadway, they didn't even come close in the movie. Without the added grotesqueness, it tends to already take away some of the sympathy for the phantom regardless of singing or acting ability. It makes you think what idiot fainted when they saw him? It may have been because they were still trying to maintain the PG-13 rating, but I think they relied way too much on making the Phantom look like a "pretty boy" when they should have spent more time on acting and singing lessons. Someone really needed to teach him how to finish out notes. All I could sit there and think was, "And HE was supposed to teach HER how to sing?"

Other than the singing, my other complaint was in nearing the end. The tempos of the music were quite accelerated, and it appeared that the actors/actresses were having a hard time keeping up with it. In addition, it gave them even less of a chance to be emotional, which they certainly didn't need. This was especially noticeable in the finale where emotion is greatly needed between all three characters to make it believable.
Now, the talking through some of the lyrics was kind of laughable because it all rhymed, but I realize that they were trying to not sing throughout the entire movie.

On a plus, I was very happy that the segment detailing how the Phantom came to the opera house was included. I've read a variety of different books regarding how he came to be, and that was by far, my preferential beginning.

I also give them props for sticking with most of Andrew Lloyd Webber's production and lyrics. I was thrilled with the amount of the music from the musical that was included even if some of the singing was horrendous.

I was humored by some of the lyrics that were changed, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. A prime example was the fact that the chandelier still hadn't dropped when Masquerade began. Knowing the lyrics
"To a prosperous year
And a new chandelier"
were coming up, I was curious to see if changes to the lyrics would be made, and of course, they were.

Another thing that was quite cool was the slight nod to the 1946 French version of Beauty and the Beast, although I'm not sure if this was intended. With the Phantom of the Opera being a takeoff from the Beauty and the Beast tale, with the exception that the Phantom never turns into a prince, it was cool to see some of the set design from the Phantom's Lair somewhat equivalent to the old Beauty and the Beast movie, i.e. the arms coming out of the wall holding the candles and showing the way as Christine and the Phantom walk through.

satanskitten · Post by **satanskitten** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 6:27 pm

I too was disappointed, I did not like some of the lyrics changes, I felt that they felt the need to dumb down the musical for theatre audiences. I don't understand the random future scenes that jsut seemd thrown in throughout the movie, and I was very angry at the change of timing on the chandelier disaster. I felt that change disrupted the flow of the movie. I also agree that the change in lyrics were rather comical at times. I really found it amusing when they rhymed apparition with retainer. That almost made me laugh aloud. I do want to say that Minnie Driver was extremely comical as Carlotta while not playing her as an Italian Prima Donna. and I do want to say that I felt that the actor playing Raoul had a gorgeous strong tenor although he resembled a Ken doll.

I want to disagree with what's been said about the girl playing Christine, I felt her voice, while singing, portrayed plenty of emotion, and I felt she had that part down in that aspect. I do agree that her closeup did resemble a deer in headlights.

but all that aside, it is an interpretation of the stage musical, which is an interpretation of the book, so I do plan to see it many more times, although I may try the soundtrack substitute trick.

on a side note, during the previews I overheard some little girl in the theatre stating that her friend saw the movie earlier and that it was much better than the stage production, which makes me want to smack the friend that said that and try to beat some sense of culture into her.

shadow dancer · Post by **shadow dancer** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 6:59 pm

satanskitten wrote:I do want to say that Minnie Driver was extremely comical as Carlotta while not playing her as an Italian Prima Donna.

I couldn't agree more with you there. I can't believe that I had forgotten about that. She definitely surprised me in a good way in that film.

satanskitten wrote:and I do want to say that I felt that the actor playing Raoul had a gorgeous strong tenor although he resembled a Ken doll.

I thought Raoul was always supposed to resemble a Ken doll as the "society beauty". My understanding is that he was always supposed to appear as beautiful, physically in the stereotypical sense, as the Phantom appeared ugly. That's always been my understanding which helped to make the Phantom even more jealous of him.

When I finally get out your way, and we go see this, I think the theatre is going to get pissed at us as we dissect the whole thing.

satanskitten · Post by **satanskitten** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:13 pm

shadow dancer wrote:
satanskitten wrote:and I do want to say that I felt that the actor playing Raoul had a gorgeous strong tenor although he resembled a Ken doll.

I thought Raoul was always supposed to resemble a Ken doll as the "society beauty". My understanding is that he was always supposed to appear as beautiful, physically in the stereotypical sense, as the Phantom appeared ugly. That's always been my understanding which helped to make the Phantom even more jealous of him.

I understand that metaphorically. I was meaning the actor actually looked like a Ken doll. the sandy blond hair chiseled face etc. I was speaking completely literally.

shadow dancer wrote:When I finally get out your way, and we go see this, I think the theatre is going to get pissed at us as we dissect the whole thing.

I also agree with this wholeheartedly. and I think we should take Shelia with us too (who I saw it with last night) she would enjoy that since we were doing it last night somewhat anyways.

hehe..this guy behind us leaned over while the stupid video thing they play before the previews was playing and we were talking really loudly, and he said "this isn't your living room" to which I replied rather loudly without turning around "this isn't the movie yet either"

paintedbird · Post by **paintedbird** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 5:30 pm

I finally got around to seeing it yesterday and loved it. I had never seen the stage production or heard the music before, so I think I probably appreciated it more since I wasn't comparing it. I too thought the sets and costumes were absolutely gorgeous (I want some of those costumes!) and I thought the music was wonderful and most of the singing was very good. I loved the voice of the woman who played Christine. I definately agree that they should have gotten someone else to play the phantom as his voice kinda sucked (though not completely intolerable) and he wasn't a very good actor. I did think Christine did a great job showing emotion, despite the couple of deer in the headlights scenes. I'm glad I saw this in the theatre- i think it will probably lose a lot of the stunning visual impact when its moved to video.