bigaggietrumpet

I'm curious as to what some of you thought of the new movie "Phantom of the Opera". I haven't seen it yet, nor will I anytime soon. However, I have listened to the soundtrack, and I gotta say, I'm not impressed. The guy they picked to play the phantom....well, I'll be nice and say he's not the best. Not even close. So far, I'm the only one on this campus who seems to think that, so I'm just curious to what some of ya'll think.

Bear

I thought it was a pretty ok movie... of course after seein the real show on Broadway.... kinda hard not to criticize it. But I liked it, wouldn't mind seein' it again.

Manny Laureano

Thanks for giving me a chance to rant.

The Choice for the Phantom was one of the most historically phenomal examples of miscasting ever.

The phantom is supposed to be 50ish. They made him stud in his early thirties if that.

He is supposed to have a powerful, emotive voice that's supposed to invoke pity and fear at the same time. It was horrible; out of tune and Joe Cockeresque

He's supposed to be butt ugly. Instead he's got a bad case of sunburn.

Everyone else was fine except for the less than average lip synching which is a fact of life for movies but this could have been better.

Minnie Driver had her character down perfect as did the girl that played Christine.

The masquerade scene speaks of colors in the text but it's done in B & W to show off the phantom wearing his skin tight speedos.

Otherwise the direction was excellent and the singing very good by everone but the title role!

What in the hell where they thinking when they cast a guy who had had a total of four, yes, four singing lessons in his life?

ML

bigaggietrumpet

Thank goodness I'm not alone! Have you ever heard the recording that was released a few years ago with Graham Bickley (I think that's how it's spelled, I don't have the case with me) as the phantom? That man was PERFECT for this. Try going from that to "Sunshine the wonder doof" that they casted. When I listened to that bozo sing "Music of the Night" I nearly threw my computer out the window! I think the girl who played Christine, while not being the best who ever played it, probably did one of the better jobs that I've ever heard.

fatcat

I admit that I don't have the biggest of backgrounds with this play... I've seen it once live, I've heard stuff off of a Crawford soundtrack, and I've seen the movie.

I agree with pretty much everything that Manny said, except that I didn't like Raoul from the movie. He just didn't seem to care at all about anything that was going on.

The Christine from the movie is my favorite, out of the one's that I've heard, but keep in mind, that I've only heard 3 including her.

I'd see the movie again though, and will probably buy it once it comes out on DVD.