I am one of those truly sad people (sad in that I can't afford it yet do it anyway) who watch the musical phenomenon that is Phantom once a year. I and three other friends of mine always go without fail, and we've done this for six years now. So when I heard the news that it was going to be a movie I was really really excited, and horrified at the same time. I watched the movie about two weeks ago when it came out in London, and I have to say that I thought it was magnificent. It is my favourite musical and a sensation of a spectacle that never fails to move me to tears. Sniff, sniff.
Joel Shumacher gets a lot of flak. He is often labelled as the guy 'who killed the Bat', in that his Batman & Robin was an atrocious debacle, but I have always blamed the screenwriter, that awful man Akiva Goldsman for that. Schumacher, if truth be told, is an exquisitely talented director when it comes to visuals, and is so visually aware and inspired that I knew he would get the look right. I was worried, SO worried about his cast.
NO one can ever replace Michael Crawford, the original Phantom. After all, the role was written for him. However, Gerard Butler didn't try to replace him - he did the best he could, which was to interpret it in his own manner, and I admired his interpretation. I liked what he and Schumacher did in adding those few little touches - we see the Phantom dropping the curtain on Carlotta when she starts singing, whereas in the musical it never acutally falls on her. Its the determined sort of 'get that horrid cow off the stage' sentiment in the flick of the wrist that made me laugh. I also adored the shot of him actually swapping the tonic Carlotta takes for God knows what else in order to make her croak like a toad. Also, I love the way he says 'A toad, madame? Perhaps it is you who are the toad'. He was brilliant.
Raoul, too was outstanding. I have always hated Raoul (and sided with the Phantom, disturbingly) but in the film they actually cast an attractive actor who can sing really really well, and I do believe they made him more heroic, though I 'did' have problems with the graveyard scene - though I loved the duel, I didn't like that Phantom lost it, and that it was Raoul who spared his life. Hrm... again, I'm one to side with Phantom.
But the one who really SHINES in this film is Christine. Emmy Rossum is absolutely fantastic, and a hell of an improvement over that horrific diva, Sarah Brightman, who I felt always tarnished the role of Christine. Her singing made Christine a narcisstic wimp, and by far the character I have always truly despised but Emmy Rossum was SO good she absolved me of seven years of bile and venom towards the character of Christine, and made me like her. I loved her Christine, she was absolutely fantastic - and her singing was simply glorious. Her rendition of 'Think of Me' was grand.
Of course, the visuals were terrific. Schumacher visualised everything perfectly right down to the last detail, though perhaps the choreography of the actors when they're not actually supposed to be dancing or singing left something to be desired. I did not altogether agree with the horse waiting for them in 'The Phantom of the Opera', and I thought the actors moved too slow in that scene.
The changes; they were minimal but I agreed with almost all of them. The story actually follows through the structure implied in the theatre production - in that it is told in flashback, and the 'new' ending they gave it does not steal the sense of loss and longing, or diminish the 'haunting' effect of the production - it keeps it and amplifies it in a way. My friends said it was a bit of a cop-out and a 'hollywood ending', but I disagree. If you think about it, its all the more sorrowful and painful, yet touching and intensely delicate. If you have seen it you know what I'm talking about - I LOVED that touch, and I like Raoul's sort of acceptance of it. Its as if his entire coach ride throughout the film, purchasing the Monkey and his encounter with Madame Giry sort of helped him bury any resentment and to finally understand - as Christine once sung to him 'you will understand in time'. I felt as if, at the end of the film, he finally did.
The movie was fantastic. Fuck the critics; go to it if you're a fan, go to it if you're not, and just enjoy it. What they have done is essentially given the Phantom to those who can't afford or don't find going to theatres that easy, and they have done it tastefully, authentically and, I thought, very faithfully.
Ant.
I'M SO GLAD TO HEAR A POSITIVE REVIEW!!!! It's been pissing me off because all the people who have been giving it bad marks didn't even like the musical!!! 
I'm going to see it tomorrow. 
You either like lavish Broadway musicals, or you don't--and I suspect most film reviewers fall into the latter and that's where the bad reviews are coming from. 
Anthony
sounds good!
