Movie Review : Phantom of The Opera - Andrew Lloyd Webber

The Phantom of The Opera
A Joel Shumacher film



Expectations

Webber's Phantom is a Rock Opera. I'm pretty much expecting what amounts to a 90 min rock video with minimal special effects and acting, but the music had better be awesome , because that's what I'm paying for.

What I got
141 minutes, not 90

Pretty much 95% of the movie was someone singing. Good quality sound. Dolby 5.1 I'd heard the songs before , they were the ones you find on the cd's , it was nice to see people acting along to them.

Sets / Acting

It's not someone sticking a camera in front of a stage and having the actors do Phantom of the Opera one more time before it stops running in toronto. They actually build real sets and it looks like a movie. If you get over the part where everyone is singing ALL the time, it actually looks quite real. I hadn't expected that, so I put it up a notch above the expected 90 min rock video

Actiing is difficult to judge , no one acts , they all just stand around and sing. They all sing real good. The phantom has a better stage presence than anyone else, so I suppose he's the best actor around, even though he's the villian.

Special Effects

No special effects are particularily noticable. What is noticable is simply that "everything works". You're back stage of an 18th century opera house, all the levers and ropes and curtains and everything work properly.

There was one scene where the phantom was poling a boat along an underground river (singing a song of course) and candels on some kind of chandeliers rose up out of the water. And the candles actually lit themselves as they cleared the water. Amusing, but the only obvious special effect in the whole movie.



The story

who cares ? I just bought it because I liked the tunes.
Some kind of love triangle between the disfigured Phantom (dont' get your hopes up , by 18th century standards he may be considered a monster but by 21st century standards it just leaves you going "they can fix that now you know, cheap too..") a pretty young girl , and a non disfigured man who is a mediocre singer and uglier than the phantom if you ask me , though he's played up as the handsome prince.
The two men fight. The Evil Monster Phantom loses. The pretty girl runs off with the ugly prince. The rest is mere detail and a lot of really nice rock music.
Except that you can see the 18th centuray morality showing through, and the phantom doesn't really come off as evil by modern standards. Or maybe we're just way too understanding about such things.

Conclusion
it's a 90 min rock video , and then some. If thats what you're looking for , you won't be disapointed.