| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
|
| Story: |
C+ |
|
|
| Acting: |
B+ |
|
|
| Direction: |
B- |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A |
|
|
A Movie Spectacle........Flawed, but Worthy Enough
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Jun 21, 2008
308
of
375 people found this review helpful
This is a movie that has some great moments (like the stage production), but also has some serious flaws. The pace of the film, like the stage show, can get really slow at times ............so slow you start to get a bit bored (blame Andrew Lloyd Weber and his "fill-in" music). But overall this movie is entertaining ................especially those scenes with Emmy Rossum (Christine), who STEALS the show. Rossum is probably the most perfect Christine ever. She is young, very pretty, can act and has a voice that never strains to hit those high notes. She really does deserve the nod that the Golden Globes gave her for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical. Now Gerard Butler, who plays the Phantom there are conflicting opinions on. Some say he does not have the "power" (and not just in his voice) to play the role........but in my opinion, I think he really is very good. He does not have the range of Michael Crawford or Davis Gains, but he has a gritty voice ...........which is always best when he gets ANGRY. With Butler it is much more about the acting ................and he really is quite excellent at that. He is a different kind of Phantom than what we are used to, much younger, which is probably the only flaw with him. One could also say he is not scarey enough (think back to the Lon Chaney Phantom), but you can't blame that on the actor, blame Webber for making the Phantome a much more romantic and sympathetic character. Now Patrick Wilson as the love interest Raoul sounds great, but, is unfortunetly stuck playing a rather bland guy. Hate to say it, I ended up cheering on the Phantom at times. Minnie Driver as the Diva should have been given poison at one point in the movie ..........would have put her out of her misery. The cast as a whole though was very good, the minor players were all excellent.
Some of the choreography was dissapointing .........which surprised me as Phantom is known for having spectacular dancing. So because of that, some scenes could have been much better .........but overall you can ignore the poorly done things in this film and focus on what is done well. I had high hopes that a movie would be able to cut out the weaker points of the show, but as this was produced by Webber I should have known he would not take anything out. Though this has a lot of flaws, I would say go see this film. There are lots of great cinematic touches to this ever popular musical ............some very good acting, a few excellent songs ........etcetera. It is meant to be seen in the movie theater, so go see it and be entertained by this musical spectacle. |
My Public Profile 
