Thursday, June 14, 2007

The Phantom of the Opera is There Inside My Mind (and it’s driving me crazy!)


Yesterday, I went over to a friend’s house and we were going to watch the acclaimed movie, “The Phantom of the Opera”. I was very excited and I could not wait to see it. We grabbed snacks and popcorn, turned off the lights and my friends failed to inform me to get ready for a romantically huge disappointment of a chic-flick.


In my opinion, some books that were meant to stay books should stay books, and some operas that were meant to stay operas, should stay operas. Because "The Phantom of the Opera" was originally an opera (well, first a book), there were many very peculiar elements throughout the movie that obviously would not been able to happen in real life. Yes, I know it’s a musical, and lovers singing to each other before they kiss is so romantic, but I mean come on – where is the music coming from when the Phantom makes his grand entrance at the masquerade, and why on earth would you be singing if a complete stranger was taking you to his deep and wet lair? (By the way, Christine’s faint was a complete disappointment – I mean come on, it’s a chic-flick! You can faint more dramatically and romantically than that!).


There were many other weird elements as well, such as golden arms holding burning candles in a corridor that moved out of the way as Christine and the Phantom passed (that were not there when Meg ventured into the corridor! Moreover, why would she still be wearing her pointe shoes – especially when walking in a wet, rat-infested corridor? I have no idea – those things cost at least sixty bucks a pair! She did have very good turnout when she walked, I can credit her that). Furthermore, the fact that every song was dubbed in, and you could tell it was dubbed in, made the movie just the more disappointing.


Moreover, what was with the 1980’s music when the Phantom leads Christine to his lair?! It was an awesome song, but why, why ‘80’s style music with electric guitars and the like?? Oh well. It was still a surprisingly great song . . .


*sigh* If the Phantom wasn’t so demented, estranged, and obsessive, he’d be a pretty cool guy – I mean just look at his cloak! That had to have been the coolest cloak I had ever seen (besides Darth Sidious’ black Sith robe ;) ). I especially loved the way he would throw his cape away with the coolest black gloves!! He also had an excellent singing voice, along with being extremely romantic! *sighs dramatically and faints away*


. . . Oh, why did Raoul have to come into the picture? Why couldn’t have Christine and the Phantom just lived happily and romantically in the Phantom’s lair singing love songs to each other? :p Well, then I suppose that would be the end of the movie and then where would the awesome sword fight come into play? By the way, that was an impressive sword fight – especially with the Phantom’s swirling black cape!


Christine is so lucky – I wish I had the Phantom as my own “angel of music”. Well… I wouldn’t want him to be as nearly as demented, but I would want him to be just as creepily cool with the awesome cape, black gloves, and of course, the mask.


One more thing – despite the fact that a few of the dresses were very pretty and extravagant, almost all of them were completely immodest. I just wanted to point that out ;) .


I could rattle on and on about all of the little things I disliked about the movie, but don’t get me wrong, I do like “The Phantom of the Opera”, and if I had a chance to watch it again, I would (I would just fast-forward to all of the scenes with the Phantom ;) ). I know that all of my friends will be disappointed in me because I don’t completely appreciate the movie, but I can’t help it! I rarely like “chic-flicks”. There are only a few, such as "Emma" (oh, I love Mr. Knightly!) and "Ever After" that I really enjoy, but give me "Star Wars", "The Last Samurai", "Pearl Harbor", "The Patriot", "Independence Day", "Star Trek: First Contact", "Galaxy Quest", or "The Incredibles" any day! However, I do enjoy romantic movies once in a while. . . and if I have the chance to watch “The Phantom of the Opera” again, I will.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah my dear,

Have you ever thought about becoming a movie critic? You almost do as good a job as me *grin*.

Anyways, I'm so glad you have this set up for people like me that aren't super technologically advanced and don't have blogspots to be able to post :).

That is the sad plight of movies that have been made from Operas/books - they are always better or in most cases, worse than the original. I only ever so the Phantom movie version, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I must confess that the Phantom is much more romantic than Raoul (sp?) but also quite demented. If only Raoul hadn't been in the picture and the Phantom had a major heart change..........

Melea B.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I forgot, the Phantom DID have a heart change. Man, I do so hate "love triangles" in movies....it's so annoying.

Melea

Elizabeth F. said...

Hi, Melea! It's so good to hear from you! :) I'm so glad you're able to comment, now. I'm sorry that I didn't realize sooner that I had such intense comment restrictions... :(

Yes, I totally agree with you: if only Raul had NOT been in the picture! Oh, how much better the story would've been... ;)

(I know I keep poking fun at this movie, but I can't help it! :) Amazingly, I think it's actually growing on me, because I keep listening to the music over and over again and I'm starting to like it - but that's for another post... :) )

What versions of The Phantom of the Opera have you seen? Or have you read the book? I really want to read the book. A friend of mine told me that it was really good - perhaps even better than the movie (I wouldn't doubt that... ;) )

Well, it was so good to hear from you! :D God bless!

~ ELizabeth