Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Can a movie from 14 years ago be considered a classic? The story is, I want to say well known, but I think ultimately the title is more well known than the story, that and the iconic imagery of the Phantom is ABSOLUTEY classic.
I feel like I should say before I get started, I quite enjoyed this movie (thank you Jason for the recommendation).
I’ve never seen, nor read any adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. I have heard the song, I’ve always loved the song (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes do a great punk version). Add in the look of the Opera Ghost and that is about all I really know about the story before watching. In my youth I never would have given anything closely related to opera a chance shy of Buggs Bunny. Good news everyone, I got a little older and a little wiser and opened my mind a bit. Who knew one of my favorite things would be to block out all other sound while listening to opera while carving through fresh powder on a snowboard, bluebird day or not, there is something about it that just feels right. I was not expecting any feelings like that to come up while watching the movie, it was directed by Joel Schumacher of Batman Forever and Batman and Robin fame after all.
I love musicals so I was very curious to see how this was going to turn out. The opening of a postcard of the opera house zooming in to an auction to set up the story was nice, I liked the grainy look. The auction was so extremely polite it almost made me laugh but the look of the monkey with cymbals was way too creepy to actually haha out loud. The opening scene as well as a few others are in black and white, and take place in 1919 while the story itself takes place in 1870 in colour, and lots of it.
Once we get to 1870 and all the colours pop we get what I hope is an accurate look at what things looked like in France in the late 19th century. The set design and costume design was fantastic, I wish I could have a mustache as cool as some of these guys. Extra points for all the dancers looking like Princess Leia.
I was actually on the edge of my seat for a good portion of the first part of the movie, I literally got a shiver when the Phantom dropped his first note. The duet of the theme song when he takes her into the basement for the first time was pretty great. This is where the movie fell apart for me. At this point I wasn’t sure if the Phantom was someone mystical or some creepy guy in the basement. With another appearance of the monkey in the basement the Opera Ghost is starting to feel a lot more like a creeper. The guy lives in the walls of an opera house, has been watching an orphan girl grow up and then kidnaps her. And that’s not all, he already threatened bad things will happen in his first note if the new owners don’t meet his demands and pay him 20,000 francs a month and reserve a luxury box for him. But wait there’s more, he also kills people!!! I was sad to see the drunken stage hand hung. Shortly before that the Phantom bombards everyone with notes and it was about that time I started to wonder if Scooby Doo was about to pop out and solve the case.
I’m completely lost with the Phantom. It seems like the film wants me to think of the Phantom as conflicted and misunderstood, it could just be me but I didn’t see any conflict. He is barely scared at all so the fact he finds himself hideous just makes him seem like a narcissist. After his mischief and murder, still no one takes him seriously, he vanishes for 3 months. To celebrate the fact the phantom is gone they have a mascaraed and sing about how the Phantom has been gone, which obviously immediately brings him back so he can resume his terror. Nothing else makes any sense for the rest of the film. We get a flashback of Madam Giry giving some backstory for the Phantom to Raoul which seems like it is supposed to make the Phantom more sympathetic. Christine goes to her fathers grave apparently thinking the Phantom could be her father? Its not like the Phantom wasn’t creepy enough. The fact no one even thought to try to catch the Phantom makes no sense to me at all either. The chandelier escape was pretty cool, but the sequence after was difficult to watch. Raoul follows Phantom and Christine to the basement, all three of them sing at the same time making it hard to listen to and the Phantom gives up. We get one more scene from 1919 of the damn monkey music box where Raoul takes it to Christine’s grave and sees a flower left for her by the Phantom. This makes no sense, the monkey was important to the Phantom, no one else. Why is Raoul doing something nice for the Phantom who did absolutely nothing but horrible things to anyone Raoul knew and routinely tried to kill him??
I’m not sure what bugs me more, the fact the Phantom is surprised that Christine doesn’t like him after he kidnapped her and murdered people or that she seems to actually love him.
The film does very little to help you understand why Christine would have any feelings at all for the Phantom at all.
Technically the movie was pretty good, The songs sounded great but didn’t feel like they matched the actors voices. Lots of interesting camera angles, lots of colour, and a good cast. It’s a lot of fun nonsense.