Monday, February 07, 2005

Phantom of the Opera thoughts

So me and my wife went and saw The Phantom of the Opera movie over the weekend and I came away impressed. Especially after the savaging this film received from the critics (just reinforces the point that critics are cattle - joking, of course).

But here's a few observations I had.


First there's way too much of the above going on. Namely, guys with their fluffy shirts open and chests hanging out. (Don't they know it's snowing?) In the end it looked like the cover of a cheesy romance novel and didn't do much for my sense of masculinity.

Raoul (pictured above) needed a haircut. He had the 18th century version of a mullet. I don't know why directors love the long-haired hero. "This guy looks good but y'know what would really put him over the top is a glamrock hairdo!" Is that what goes on in their head?

There's also this point in the last act where The Phantom has Raoul tied and noosed (is that a word?) and Raoul gets this look on his face like, "Woah, how did the situation disintegrate to this?" that made me laugh. I don't think that was the director's attention, however.

Also, this film wins the award for most shots of people taking long drinks from a bottle. This image occurs an amazing number of times, to the point that I felt like shouting, "Okay, they're alcoholics! We get it!" I foresee liver problems for the opera house.

The Phantom's come a long way, hasn't he?

From


To


Pretty soon they're going to pull off the mask and he'll only have a bad mole or acne.



Christine is lovely. Suzanne and I wondered afterwards if Emmy Rossum paid off God. I mean, she's incredibly good-looking, a fine actress and an amazing singer. Where's the trade-off? Is she dumb as a rock? I doubt it.

The Phantom was the biggest surprise, however. He has a presence that ignites the movie whenever he's on screen. And his voice gives chills.

In short, good movie, great music. Ignore the critics and go see it.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Levi, this is Claire. I'm just commenting anonymously because I didn't want to sign up for an account. I'm at your house right now, on your laptop and in the background I hear Jack saying over and over again, "my this, my this" Me and Rosalyn think that in your books the character of Jack should be more persistent like your son.
Thank you for liking Phantom, it was such an awesome movie. The phantom was awesome, and so was Christine. I didn't think the phantom had the best voice ever but he made up for it in emotion and charisma. See ya soon!

5:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi levi,
your review of the phantom was very true and made me laugh. The phantom was very hmm... good looking. I must admit how shallow I am though, in the end I really kind of wanted him to put his mask back on.
I also agree that the Arthur books are getting out of control , I wonder if people think its a really great and novel idea to write about king arthur. We all know the legend and people keep trying to put new and exiting spins on it. By the way your Arthur spin wasnt too bad at all.
well I must go and clean your kitchen see ya.
-roz

6:56 PM  
Blogger Sadie Lou said...

"Christine is lovely. Suzanne and I wondered afterwards if Emmy Rossum paid off God. I mean, she's incredibly good-looking, a fine actress and an amazing singer. Where's the trade-off? Is she dumb as a rock? I doubt it."

Guess what?! She's only 18 too. She has plenty of time to get EVEN better. Wow. That blew my mind when I found out she was a teenager. Sheesh. (I haven't seen the movie yet, but the previews look swell. Dan took to me to the Play at the Crest Theater in San Fransisco when we were dating. He was going to propose that night, but he was a big chicken.)

7:03 AM  
Blogger Levi Nunnink said...

Ooooo, he should've popped the question. How better does a setting get?

3:30 PM  

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