No need to attack me personally, munkustrap. I'm just relaying my experiences of seeing this movie.
You cannot possibly convince me that the choreography in "Masquerade" is period-dancing. As someone aptly mentioned, the dancing will do nothing but remind the cinema audience of Madonna's "Vogue" performance from the 1990 MTV Awards, which no doubt the concept for this scene ripped off.
Point of No Return: Whether the dancers belong in the opera or not, but it still can't take away from the fact that it looks REDICULOUS. The song should be an intense confrontation between Christine and the Phantom, full of sexual energy and anguish; to interrupt the scene with dancers doing some rather wild dance routines is inappropriate to the dramatic tension. There's a reason why Harold Prince left the two alone in the stage version.
Butler's actions during "Silence, silence": again, it's so campy that I had to hold back the giggles. Butler's expressions make him look like he's a creepy, horny man out of a 1920s horror flick. Yes, it's a small detail, but it's indicative of Schumacher's filmmaking: he doesn't know where to draw the line between sweeping melodrama and over-the-top camp. This is the man who put nipples on Batman and Robin's costumes.
If you're looking for big criticisms rather than nitpicking, my primary complaint leaving the cinema was that the film was just BORING. Forget the inconsistencies, the gaping plot holes, the painfully-dated music (can one's ears possibly escape the drum machine during the title song?). How is Christine walking around a cemetary during the entirety of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" interesting cinema? (And why is the Daae mausoleum fit for an emperor? Why doesn't Christine get buried in that huge tomb? If she gets buried with Raoul's family, why does the wife of a Vicomte get a tiny little grave?)
The film was terribly paced, lacked good performances (even Patrick Wilson, normally an actor of great depth, gave a cardboard delivery), and had no dramatic tension. The film just plodded along with no sense of direction.
I will admit that the production design was lavish, but no matter how much gold you splash onto the screen you cannot make this film beautiful to me. No chemistry, no emotion, no narrative arc, no energy, no vision. If these are things you don't mind eschewing for some pretty images, perhaps it is you who should go catch GARFIELD on DVD.
BlueWizard's blog: The Rambling Corner
HEDWIG: "The road is my home. In reflecting upon the people whom I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me."
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