The men, feeling their way in this new venture, find themselves at the mercy of reigning diva Carlotta, a narcissistic, temperamental Italian soprano used to getting her way. Innocent young Christine Daae is a talented chorus girl with a Paris opera company that has just been bought by naïve scrap metal magnates Andre and Firmin. But this long-awaited feature is the first based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning musical, which is less a horror film than a haunting tale of obsession, jealousy and unrequited love. I can safely say that this film has converted me.There have been numerous big-screen adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera over the years, from Lon Chaney’s classic 1925 horror film to a 1989 version starring Robert Englund (aka Freddy Kruger) as the hideously scarred aria lover. As I said above Stage to Screen comparisons do feel somewhat inappropriate with this film, but I was never that fussed about Phantom before or after seeing it on Broadway. All in all, this film really took me by surprise. The Soundtrack has been given a spring clean and it really benefits from it, removing some of the synthesized feel of the original and giving it much more of an orchestral grandeur. The lip sync hing is often poor, especially in 'Think of Me' which is disappointing, especially in the knowledge that all but Minnie Driver recorded their own singing parts anyway. My only niggles are technicalities, the Phantom wears a mask which only goes just above his eyebrows in the Ball scene (and shows no deformation) and yet when the normal white mask is removed later the entire left side of his face is deformed. I'm sure a lot of this is down to Joel Schumacher who successfully steers the film away from just putting the stage show on to film, but has actually created something powerful in its own right, so I believe comparisons of the stage show to film are unreasonable.
I think some other comments here are harsh, especially towards the performance of Emmy Rossum, who I thought made the film.
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