Phantom of the Opera gets phantastic review

By Heather Dexter 2007

With musical movies like Chicago becoming the new trend, a perfect example of this would be one of the most anticipated films of this winter season, Phantom of the Opera. It certainly lives up to its theatrical stage standard. From its amazing dancing dancing and costumes to its loud, heart-pounding music, it gets you into the mood. Produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and directed by Joel Schumacher, this film is full of dream, and lots of surprises to keep your mind going. The phantom, played by Gerald Butler, does a a great job of playing the mysterious masked figure. He lurks around the opera house after being rescued from the circus by a young woman.

As the story moves on, you learn that a young girl named Christina Daae, whose parents died, was told that she would always have an angel of music there to guide her, Little did she know that it was the Phantom doing it all along.

Trouble starts when Christina’s long lost boyfriend shows up, and Christina later admits to him that she’s been seeing this masked creature.

Christine’s boyfriend, Raoul, who is played by Patrick Wilson, promises to love and protect her while the Phantom watches from afar in sadness. So then the Phantom, feeling very lonely and betrayed, gets very angry at Christine and does anything he can to win her back.

The set designs in this movie are genius. In almost every scene, there seems to be hundreds and hundreds of candles that rally give the scene lots of emotion to make you fell like you’re really in an opera house.

Many other versions of Phantom of the Opera have been made. A TV version was made in 1983 and had some similarities and some differences. For example, in this movie, Sandor Korvin, tutors his wife, Elena, when one day she drowns herself after a bad review. Korvin gets in a fight with the critic and his face is burned beyond recognition with acid that falls from a shelf. He’s saved by a rat catcher who keeps him in a layer above the opera house and becomes the scary, masked figure. But that’s just one version. Other versions make the Phantom into a phenomenal violinist or an opera writer.

Three good things about this movie are the Phantom is very good looking, the visual experience of the dancing and picture was amazing, and it’s fast paced and doesn’t leave you hanging.

Three bad things about this movie are the characters have to sing everything they say, they played the same music every time the Phantom inters a scene and Christine starts singing at the top her lungs while she’s walking through a graveyard by herself, which kind of bothered me.

Something to keep in mind before seeing this movie is that it’s very lengthy, but you don’t even have to be a fan of opera to go and see it.