The Phantom of the Opera reaction thread.

[Elf Witch]

I saw it yesterday. I loved it. I am a fan of the play and have seen it several times, read the book that it is based on seen other Phantom movies. It is one of my favorite stories.

The movie looks beautiful it captures the feeling of lushness and opulence of the time. It is very faithful to the play.

Emily Rossum is wonderful as Christine she has a beautiful voice. Gerald Butler is good as the Phantom his scenes have a lot of depth to them. He is no Michael Crawford when it comes to his singing but he every bit as good as a lot of the actors I have seen on the stage over the years in the role.

If you like musicals and period pieces with tragic dark figures then you should go see this movie.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Going to see it either this afternoon, or on Sunday afternoon, depending on when my wife wants to go. She's a big fan of the stage production, but I've never seen it. She's been talking about it for months now, telling me that "This Christmas we get to see MY movie!" I really like the old silent version of Phantom with Lon Chaney, so I hope this lives up to the original story.

 

[Mark Chance]

Took the family to see it yesterday. Over all, not too bad. The frequent jumps to "present time" (Paris 1919) away from the extended flashback of the main story were a bit jarring. Interrupted the flow of the narrative too much.

I saw the stage production in NYC many years ago. I remember being underwhelmed with it, especially by what I perceived to be a near total whitewash of the Phantom's murderous tendencies. The Opera Ghost in Gaston Leroux's novel is a vicious killer who enjoys cat-and-mouse games with his prey. The stage production, from what I recall, almost completely lost this element of the story.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the movie, however, went a long way toward capturing O.G.'s murderousness while at the same time still rendering him as a truly pitiable character.

 

[Aeric]

I thought it was quite well done. There are some tricks done in the movie that would be next to impossible to acheive on the stage (although I've been told that a lot has been accomplished in the stage version). It felt like a faithful reproduction of the stageplay. The singing was great. The costumes and sets were awesome. Um...that's all I've got.

 

[KenM]

I just got back from seeing it. I loved it. I thought it was very faithful to the stage prodution and everyone in the cast did a great job. I also loved how they expanded the story a bit to explain it more. Fans of the stage show have nothing to worry about, IMO.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I can't wait to see this thing. Probably going to drag a few members of the family to it. I've always loved the stage show, so hearing these comments from you guys is making it even harder to wait.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

went to see Phantom this afternoon. My wife loved it, I thought it was pretty good. I never saw the stage production, but know bits and pieces of the music from hearing it played at home and back when I was in school and it first came out. I thought the acting was great, and the sets were amazing! I'm not a big musical fan, so I'm not the one to make judgements about the music, obviously people like it or we wouldn't be discussing a movie based on a musical, would we? I did feel that the actor playing O.G. wasn't as good a singer as Michael Crawford was, and that was Lauras reaction as well. The story was excellent, although I kept comparing it to the silent Lon Chaney version which I probably shouldn't have done, as they really are two different pieces of work. The unmasking in this version just can't compete with the unmasking of Chaney.
My final verdict? Very good, I'd watch it again.

 

[RangerWickett]

The unmasking in this version just can't compete with the unmasking of Cheney.

I knew our Vice President was up to no good!

It does look interesting. But I opted for The Life Aquatic instead.

 

[Rackhir]

Psychiatrists treating Phantom of the Opera Viewers for Post-Melodramatic Stress Disorder