Bottom line: If you love the show, you'll most likely love the movie. But if you think Webber's cash cow is a bloated monstrosity, well, there's always Lon Chaney.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:163
Fresh:54
Rotten:109
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: The music of the night has hit something of a sour note: Critics are calling the screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular musical histrionic, boring, and lacking in both romance and danger. Still, some have praised the film for its sheer spectacle.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for brief violent images
Runtime: 2 hrs 23 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Theatrical Release:10-12-2004
Synopsis: Those who thought that smoke machines and cobwebbed candelabras were the stuff of Halloween parties and dance clubs need to think again. In Joel Schumacher's film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd... Those who thought that smoke machines and cobwebbed candelabras were the stuff of Halloween parties and dance clubs need to think again. In Joel Schumacher's film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, these moody set devices--and countless others--make every scene an atmospheric vision of souped-up 19th-century Gothic bliss. Christine Daee (a luminescent Emmy Rossum) is a tortured young star who is haunted by the voice of the phantom (Gerard Butler--who also played the lead in DRACULA 2000), a musician who hides in the shadows to hide a facial disfigurement, yet sings to her obsessively. Dwelling in the dark, damp chambers beneath the Paris opera house, the phantom lords over the cast and management with artistic autocracy--he writes the shows, casts them, and threatens all who disobey his plans with dramatically violent outbursts. But when his young student Christine falls for the rich and dapper Raoul (Patrick Wilson), the phantom descends into madness. Webber's memorable songs are performed with aplomb by Rossum, whose background includes singing with the Metropolitan Opera, and Wilson and Butler provide ample accompaniment. One of the treats of the proceedings is Minnie Driver's deeply exaggerated portrayal of the jealous diva, giving this PHANTOM a very appropriate dose of comic relief. [More]
Starring: Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Minnie Driver, Patrick Wilson
Starring: Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Minnie Driver, Patrick Wilson, Miranda Richardson
Director: Joel Schumacher
Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Joel Schumacher
Producer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera
Lloyd Webber’s dated songs are like goth-lite for the Michael Bolton set.
Due to Hollywood's Humanistic ideology, this Phantom is not allowed to be a deranged demon developing delicious divas.
Just remember this picture is made with hell-bent gusto by the guy who put nipples on Batman's superhero costume. So consider yourself warned.
I'm more inclined to suggest that it be used to entertain the prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo -- at least until Amnesty International gets wind of it.
On the boards The Phantom of the Opera was bloated kitsch; now, thanks to Schumacher, it's hysterically bloated kitsch.
Sure, all the ingredients of camp are there (oh, the hubris!), but this isn't a so-bad-it's-good classic. It's worse.
Should appeal to people who like musicals but cannot afford them, though this is not a particularly inventive nor a particularly cinematic adaptation.
Schumacher's never-surer hand helps his leading lady and her erstwhile suitors find the right emotional rhythms to accompany the musical ones.
Conjures up this unexplainable spell that leaves audiences sad, sentimental, swooning, smiling--in some way transported and moved.
Sure it's kitsch, but this is a thrilling production, an epic date movie. The only problem is that Christine runs off at the very end with the wrong guy.
Roars to life in its least intimate passages...If not for his blind spot for his "angel in hell" Phantom, Schumacher would do Webber's popular entertainment justice.
an unrestrained flight of Gothic fantasy, a romance unafraid and unapologetic in letting its emotions run to a fevered pitch while still maintaining its heart and soul.
As a very deep fan of Rossum's, I can't fawn too abjectly over her pliant delicacy as the emotional center of this highly conspicuous story.
The word 'adequate' should never be the main adjective used to describe someone playing the lead in The Phantom of the Opera.
Just listen to the music and avoid eye contact with the miscast stars, and you'll have a great time.
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