Directed By Joel Schumacher; Screenplay By Andrew Lloyd Webber & Joel Schumacher; Starring Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow, Ciarán Hinds, Jennifer Ellison, James Fleet, Victor McGuire, Kevin McNally, Murray Melvin, and Minnie Driver.
Based on Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Stilgoe, & Charles Hart's 1986 stage musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux's 1910 horror novel of the same name, The Phantom of the Opera follows a deformed composer (Gerard Butler) who haunts the grand Paris Opera House. Sheltered from the outside world in an underground cavern, the lonely, romantic man tutors and composes operas for Christine Daaé (Emmy Rossum), a young soprano star-to-be. As Christine's star rises and a handsome suitor (Patrick Wilson) from her past enters the picture, the Phantom grows mad, terrorizing the opera house owners and company with his murderous ways. Yet, Christine still finds herself drawn to the mystery.
The original stage production directed by Hal Prince opened in London's West End on October 9th, 1986, becoming an enormous hit that is still running there to this day. The musical then transferred to Broadway on January 26th, 1988, where it's actually the longest-running show in Broadway history as it is about to wrap up its record-breaking 35-year run on April 16th. A film adaptation first entered development way back in 1989 with Warner Brothers buying the rights with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber hired as producer. He immediately wanted Joel Schumacher to direct it based on his use of visuals and music in 1987's The Lost Boys. Michael Crawford & Sarah Brightman, who both starred in the original West End and Broadway casts, were set to reprise their roles as The Phantom and Christine, respectively. However, this project languished in development hell for a while due to Lloyd Webber's theatre collaborators wanting to roll out more stage productions around the world first.
About a dozen years or so later, the film was put back on track in December of 2002. Andrew Lloyd Webber acquired the rights back from Warner Brothers in an attempt to produce it independently while the studio mainly handled distribution. The Phantom of the Opera was released in 2004, about two years after Chicago revitalized big screen musicals in a major way. I must admit, I actually loved this movie from the first time I saw it in middle school. But the last time I watched it in 2012, I kept laughing at myself as to how. As for my most recent re-watch…a lot of questionable choices were made here.
For some reason, Joel Schumacher didn’t seem interested in showing the characters sing. Several of the solos/duets are framed in wide shots. Parts of them are just done as voice overs. Not to mention that he had his actors speak some of the lyrics as lines of dialogue. Lyrics in musicals are meant to be sung, not spoken. Plus, Peter Darling’s choreography is very oddly staged (especially in the ‘Masquerade’ sequence). Also, how was this film Oscar nominated for Best Cinematography?! It’s not only poorly done with the musical numbers, but also with this sword fight at a cemetery in the second half.
While Minnie Driver, who played opera star Carlotta, is a trained singer in real life, she has no training in opera. So her singing was dubbed by Margaret Preece, who previously spent a year and a half playing that part in London. They couldn’t have done that treatment for the rest of the cast? There have been some movie musicals within the 21st century where audiences complained about a good deal of the actors not being these professional singers. The Phantom of the Opera had to have been the start of that whole trend. Some of the supporting players such as Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow, and Ciarán Hinds all pretty much talks-sing their way through the songs (with some possible help from autotune).
Gerard Butler previously had no professional musical experiences other than singing in a rock band while he was a law student. He had four vocal lessons prior to auditioning for this movie, and it shows. What makes his casting all the more questionable is the fact that at the time, Butler wasn’t as well known as he is now. This was a couple years before achieving great fame with 300. So it wasn’t even a matter of his presence being used for his celebrity, not his talent. Schumacher was mainly convinced he could pull it off based on his performance in Dracula 2000.
Emmy Rossum’s voice on its own sounds nice, but it just lacks the operatic oomph her role requires. It even sounded like both she and Butler were autotuned as well. God bless Patrick Wilson for coming off the best vocally out of everyone. It helps that he already had a good deal of professional musical theater experience under his belt at that point (which included two consecutive Tony nominations). Although there are actually more problems with the casting in this film than just the singing. The characters of Christine and Raoul are supposed to be childhood friends. Yet, Emmy Rossum was 17 during principal photography while Patrick Wilson was 30. We’re supposed to believe they’re childhood friends, how?! Plus, Gerard Butler looks way too handsome as the Phantom. When Christine unmasks him near the end of the stage version, he is revealed to have such a deformed face. Here, he is revealed to be basically sunburnt.
Overall, this adaptation may have some good ideas with the liberties that were taken from the source material, but they were eventually canceled out by some lackluster execution. The stage version does a much better job with casting, introducing characters, delivering exposition, and suspense. I suggest seeking out the broadcast of the 25th anniversary performance at Royal Albert Hall starring Sierra Boggess & Ramin Karimloo from 2011 instead of this.
Rating: 2/5
Based on Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Stilgoe, & Charles Hart's 1986 stage musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux's 1910 horror novel of the same name, The Phantom of the Opera follows a deformed composer (Gerard Butler) who haunts the grand Paris Opera House. Sheltered from the outside world in an underground cavern, the lonely, romantic man tutors and composes operas for Christine Daaé (Emmy Rossum), a young soprano star-to-be. As Christine's star rises and a handsome suitor (Patrick Wilson) from her past enters the picture, the Phantom grows mad, terrorizing the opera house owners and company with his murderous ways. Yet, Christine still finds herself drawn to the mystery.
The original stage production directed by Hal Prince opened in London's West End on October 9th, 1986, becoming an enormous hit that is still running there to this day. The musical then transferred to Broadway on January 26th, 1988, where it's actually the longest-running show in Broadway history as it is about to wrap up its record-breaking 35-year run on April 16th. A film adaptation first entered development way back in 1989 with Warner Brothers buying the rights with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber hired as producer. He immediately wanted Joel Schumacher to direct it based on his use of visuals and music in 1987's The Lost Boys. Michael Crawford & Sarah Brightman, who both starred in the original West End and Broadway casts, were set to reprise their roles as The Phantom and Christine, respectively. However, this project languished in development hell for a while due to Lloyd Webber's theatre collaborators wanting to roll out more stage productions around the world first.
About a dozen years or so later, the film was put back on track in December of 2002. Andrew Lloyd Webber acquired the rights back from Warner Brothers in an attempt to produce it independently while the studio mainly handled distribution. The Phantom of the Opera was released in 2004, about two years after Chicago revitalized big screen musicals in a major way. I must admit, I actually loved this movie from the first time I saw it in middle school. But the last time I watched it in 2012, I kept laughing at myself as to how. As for my most recent re-watch…a lot of questionable choices were made here.
For some reason, Joel Schumacher didn’t seem interested in showing the characters sing. Several of the solos/duets are framed in wide shots. Parts of them are just done as voice overs. Not to mention that he had his actors speak some of the lyrics as lines of dialogue. Lyrics in musicals are meant to be sung, not spoken. Plus, Peter Darling’s choreography is very oddly staged (especially in the ‘Masquerade’ sequence). Also, how was this film Oscar nominated for Best Cinematography?! It’s not only poorly done with the musical numbers, but also with this sword fight at a cemetery in the second half.
While Minnie Driver, who played opera star Carlotta, is a trained singer in real life, she has no training in opera. So her singing was dubbed by Margaret Preece, who previously spent a year and a half playing that part in London. They couldn’t have done that treatment for the rest of the cast? There have been some movie musicals within the 21st century where audiences complained about a good deal of the actors not being these professional singers. The Phantom of the Opera had to have been the start of that whole trend. Some of the supporting players such as Miranda Richardson, Simon Callow, and Ciarán Hinds all pretty much talks-sing their way through the songs (with some possible help from autotune).
Gerard Butler previously had no professional musical experiences other than singing in a rock band while he was a law student. He had four vocal lessons prior to auditioning for this movie, and it shows. What makes his casting all the more questionable is the fact that at the time, Butler wasn’t as well known as he is now. This was a couple years before achieving great fame with 300. So it wasn’t even a matter of his presence being used for his celebrity, not his talent. Schumacher was mainly convinced he could pull it off based on his performance in Dracula 2000.
Emmy Rossum’s voice on its own sounds nice, but it just lacks the operatic oomph her role requires. It even sounded like both she and Butler were autotuned as well. God bless Patrick Wilson for coming off the best vocally out of everyone. It helps that he already had a good deal of professional musical theater experience under his belt at that point (which included two consecutive Tony nominations). Although there are actually more problems with the casting in this film than just the singing. The characters of Christine and Raoul are supposed to be childhood friends. Yet, Emmy Rossum was 17 during principal photography while Patrick Wilson was 30. We’re supposed to believe they’re childhood friends, how?! Plus, Gerard Butler looks way too handsome as the Phantom. When Christine unmasks him near the end of the stage version, he is revealed to have such a deformed face. Here, he is revealed to be basically sunburnt.
Overall, this adaptation may have some good ideas with the liberties that were taken from the source material, but they were eventually canceled out by some lackluster execution. The stage version does a much better job with casting, introducing characters, delivering exposition, and suspense. I suggest seeking out the broadcast of the 25th anniversary performance at Royal Albert Hall starring Sierra Boggess & Ramin Karimloo from 2011 instead of this.
Rating: 2/5