The Hedonism Arbiters
4/25/2005 07:55:00 PM | posted by Lover Boy | #  
The Phantom Has Come to Strike Fear in Us All
Well folks, I am the newest Arbiter to this group. I am honored to be part of this prestigous organization. For my first post, I would like to give you all my first movie review.

I had a chance to view the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera." The original story was written by the French author, Gaston Leroux. Webber brought the story to life by creating an outstanding score to the story and brought it to Broadway. Now, I had a chance years ago to see this on Broadway, so my expectations were high. Joel Schumacher, who brought us such films as: Bad Company, Phonebooth, 8mm, and yes, even the very poorly made, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Hearing the Shumacher was the director for this outstanding story, I was skeptical, taking his past movies into consideration. However, Schumacher did a very good job at making this play into a visually stunning feature film. There are just some things that a live Broadway play cannot bring out, and that film is able to capture.

The performers that were chosen for the roles in this movie were very well picked. For me, most of them were not well known. The actor that played the Phantom was Gerald Butler. His performance as the Phantom was riviting. He was in some lesser quality films such as Dracula 2000, Reign of Fire, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. He brought out the anger and utter inner turmoil of what is the Phantom of the Opera. Schumacher's visual team did a great job of the make-up for the scarred face of the Phantom, the rest of the movie that was the Phantom was stolen by Butler.

Emmy Rossum took on the role as the tormented Christine. The woman torn between her love for Raoul and her passion for the music that the Phantom brought her. Emmy Rossum has been in such things as Mystic River and The Day After Tomorrow. She is an amazing actress who brought Christine to life on screen. Rossum showed the torment that Christine goes through. She acted the part very well, being the wholesome girl that Christine is, with the darker undertone.

The lesser known actor, Patrick Wilson I, played Christine's lover, Raoul. Now his acting in the story, as the man who wanted to love and protect Christine, was done very well. However, I was not a fan of the choice to give Raoul long, shoulder length hair. Now, for Wilson's defense, that did not draw away from his part, but it was something I found annoying to a point. He looked too much like a woman. But playing the man who fights for the love of Christine, Wilson does an excellent job.

What drew me away a lot of the time, was the addition of parts and the same songs that were sung over and over. I love choral enembles, but the same songs became too repetitious for me. I guess it is musicals like this being brought to film is what got to me. When performed live, the music is outstanding, however, the music being sung on film just is not the same. The actor lip sync the lyrics and it feels out of place at points. The performers did a great job portraying their parts accorrdingly, but they did not make it believable that they were singing. A lot of the time, the movements they made while in song were just not managable. Running and singing like they did is just not possible. That is one major problem with this movie. Butler did probably the best job of making it believable that he was actually singing. He showed such feeling in all his songs. Wilson, however, did not do a good job. He did not use his mouth movements and the air intake it would take to hit the notes and sing the lines.

All in all, the film was very well done, all things considered. The music was still amazing, but it was the combination of the acting while singing that just got under my skin. If the performers and Schumacher would have spent more time with the music, it would have been a lot more appealing. I enjoyed the film, and would recommend it to anyone who loves musicals. The problem with the singing does not totally take away from the movie, even though the movie is a musical. I would give the movie 3 stars. That is my take on Phantom of the Opera. Thank you for reading.

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2 Comments:

i also saw Phantom of the Opera this weekend...i would have to agree that it was an overall very good film. i really enjoyed the music. However, at times it seemed that there mouths and the words didn't line up. I am not that wild on musicals but it was really entertaining.

I enjoyed Phantom as well, but I think it deserves a little more credit than you're giving it.

First of all, its a musical. You have to suspend disbelief a little bit as far as the singing and running is concerned. I mean, if you were going for realism, the characters wouldn't be singing all the time in the first place. And, in my opinion, the lip syncs were pretty well done. Also, something impressive that you didn't touch on is that all of the actors (with the exception of Minnie Driver) sang their own parts, even if it wasn't live.

Also, addressing your claims that all the songs are sung over and over, that's just how Phantom is written. It's been a while since I've seen it on stage, but I know a lot of the songs are sung using the same melodies. I think that's beneficial for a musical; it keeps the music from distracting from the overall story. Instead of random musical tangents, there's a sense of continuity throughout.

I thought this version of Phantom did the musical, if not the original story, justice. I'll agree, it was visually stunning, but I'll have to disagree with your evaluation of the music, which I felt blended well.

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