With many out in Iowa without internet, it’s time to break out the old DVD’s and Blu-Rays!
My internet is still out at my house, and to celebrate my 7th Wedding anniversary with my wife, we decided to watch a good romantic film that we both like, 2004’s Phantom of the Opera, starring Gerard Butler as the Phantom. Now, I have loved the music and the stage play for years, and in 2013, director Joel Shchumacher gave Phantom the silver screen treatment it deserved.
Chances are, you don’t have internet, so you can’t stream your favorite media right now….so? Head to your local Family Video and rent instead. But is this a movie you should give a watch to while stuck with no internet? My quick rental review….
A great story & interpretation with reasonable highs and lows.
If this is your first ever experience with Phantom, know that it is indeed a musical. Probably one of the most well known ones of all time really! Loosely based on the classic story and silent horror film, Phantom takes you through the story of Christine Daae as she becomes a rising star, thanks to the teachings of a mysterious man acting as an ‘Angel of Music.’ However, the teacher becomes the lustful one as he feels he deserves her love by giving her the gift of music…
Gerard Butler, in my opinion does a fantastic job. The original stage Phantom (Michael Crawford) was an extraordinary singer, but Butler was more rugged, deep voiced, and couldn’t hit those notes the Crawford could. I feel as though Butler’s interpretation was more real…a genius, condemned to a life of solitude….he’s not supposed to be clean and proper.
Some of the highs were clearly the set design, the movie looks great! Bright and full of the old charm with a kinda ‘brassy’ color palate. However, some of the performance came off dry…when Christine (Emmy Rossum) sings her first song? She looks….dead…same for when she is going into the mirror to meet Phantom….white, ghost like, and dead…like NO expression on her face…and it makes me uncomfortable to watch! I go back an forth with her character, Emmy is a pretty good singer, but I don’t know…her performance was good, but not great.
I freakin’ LOVED Minnie Driver as Carlotta…she played EXACTLY how that type of character should be and I could watch her all day.
There were a few scenes added in the film that were never in the musical. The graveyard scene I think is great, but the sword battle was kind of random…I think they just put that in there just to have a ‘fight scene’…it works well for film anyway. However, my most highlight “WHY?” scene was when Roul was heading to save Christine from the Phantom and he falls into a trap, with a gate coming down to crush him I guess. It’s just so..random…and even watching it last night I said to my wife, ‘So, what was the point of that?’
If you love Phantom, you’ll probably like this one too. This was my first REAL viewing of the story, so I loved it and for me it made the time I saw it on stage even better.
