The cast is good, the score is sublime, the visuals are sumptuous and it speeds along with a delirious romantic power that, if you let it, can sweep you away.
The best musical of all times I love it and my opinion will never change I could watch it 10 times in a row and i would still watch it another 10 times
It has a little something to irritate everybody. People looking for romance will find only cardboard lovers. People looking for a resounding musical will find it odd that the camera runs away from the lip-synching cast. And people looking for opera -- well, shame on you.
This movie is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. The story is sad, dark, and romantic. The cast is exceptionally outstanding (especially Gerard Butler as the Phantom). This is a great film adaptation to the Broadway play. Love it so much!!!
The lavish sets and the opulent production overwhelmed the story and what little character development there might have been. It's a musical, after all, but I hold movie musicals to the highest standard I know - My Fair Lady. This was slow, plodding and almost on life-support at certain times during the progression of the movie. Gerard Butler needs to stick to action-heroes and never take up singing again. Minnie Driver was the singular bright spot in conveying her character in the movie.
It's certainly an improvement for Joel Schumacher since Batman and Robin, but I still did not enjoy this film.
With the exception of Erik, all of these characters are completely bland. This is not the fault of Schumacher or any of the actors. None of these characters, especially Raoul and Christine, were very interesting to begin with. And even Erik in this film isn't that deep, especially when you see that his "deformity" is really just a big rash. It doesn't look that bad and it makes his song about his face seem, well, somewhat pretentious, which is a word that I feel sad using to describe one of my favorite literary anti-heroes.
The acting isn't that great either. The only one who I thought did a decent job was Patrick Wilson as Raoul. Then there is poor Miranda Richardson doing an incredibly over the top French accent that was hard not to laugh at. This is sad because I genuinly love Miranda Richardson and think she is a fantastic actress, but her acting in this movie was terrible. I don't even understand why she has that accent since everyone else is phoning it in and just doing a British accent, with the exception of Carlotta (since she is Italian) and Raoul and Christine, who for some reason speak with American accents.
The costumes and sets are creative and well made and some of the singing isn't bad, but it just wasn't a pleasant experience for me.