A little math for ya: PHANTOM = CRAPTASTIC- Page 4

[broadway86]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 10:54am

I disagree with most of the points brought up by the original poster.

[bestofbroadway]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 11:41am

What are you talking about RobbieJ!?! It was pure GENIUS!! I think my favorite part was when the actors spoke the rectative sections....it's not like they rewrote it- IT STILL RHYMED! And the Mary Clooney dancers from White Christmas were absolutely perfect in Past the Point of No Return. And all that bling bling in Christines hair- it was so pretty- reminded me of an Elizabeth Taylor perfume commercial I once saw. Oh and the Flower Drum Song choreography in Masquerade was great. Oh and did anyone see the breakdance section in the middle with the rave dancer. Are you sure Wayne Cilento didn't choreograph it? It sure did remind me of the mess on the Gershwin Theater stage. Oh and you didn't like Emmy Rossum? I thought her deadpan walk through the movie was dead on! And all those pretty scoops up to the high notes were divine. Did anyone else notice how Joel Schumacher handeled this "coming of age story?" Well if we didn't see it in Emmy Rossum's performance we sure saw it in her chest size...VA VA VOOM! She went from flat to Anna Nicole! And the Meg G...I particularly liked her layered hair do...very period.

I could go on for hours but the points have already been made. Robbie J said it best...

[DBillyP]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 1:05pm

My sides are hurting right now from laughing so hard...a co-worker and I just made paper fans and recreated "Masquerade."

Try it!

; )

[ckeaton]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 2:14pm

InTheMoney...

As for the chandelier, they still have the chandelier. The one that blew up was a "prop" chandelier. I read somewhere that Swarovski is selling the chandelier, so if you need something for your dining room it is there.

I'm glad the film was made. I enjoyed it in a craptastic sort of "guilty pleasure" way. I'm sure I'll be buying the DVD too.

[americasinging]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 3:16pm

OH MY GOD BESTOFBROADWAY!!! My sister and I were talking about the rave dancer!!! I think he should have had glowsticks, that would have been awesom! I love you for saying that! So I'm almost afraid to say this but i've seen the movie 3 times now. But I'm not afraid to say this, Emmy Rossum is very beautiful but she is THE worst actor in the entire film. I think she had a total of 3 faces the whole time, oh yeah and she could cry. And somebody must have failed to mention that you have to MOVE your mouth to make it look like you're singing! Somebody PLEASE tell me that you saw this. And what exactly is up with her cracking in "Think of me"? I thought this was pre-recorded!

As for the Phantom. Hot, yes. Actor, mmm, yes. Singer, NO. I agree with Robbie completely on that. I think that's all i can say about him. That and that i feel sorry for him for getting cast because there are too many people who could've done it so much better and weren't even given a chance.

So if you want to see this just keep in mind that it's just another movie with pretty colors. The first time i saw it i must say that there were many things that were just not up to par with my standards. So i saw it again knowing fully what i had to forgive in order to enjoy it. There are some parts that i really do like. For example Patrick Wilson. What a beautiful human being. I think that's why i saw it a third time. Okay i'm done. See the film. Make up your own mind, but if you think Emmy is good then don't talk to me because i can't handle it.

[InTheMoney]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 4:30pm

They still have the chandelier? HALLELUIAH!!!

The way it was phrased in the programme was "With only one chandelier" so I had this horrible, horrible feeling they'd smashed the original. Though it would look out of place in my dining room. Maybe in my bedroom. Lol.

"And somebody must have failed to mention that you have to MOVE your mouth to make it look like you're singing! Somebody PLEASE tell me that you saw this."

Oh yeah. I saw it. MAJOR reason I'm not going to see the movie - that would annoy me so much I'd have to leave after the first half hour. And if I lasted that long I think I'd deserve a medal.

"if you think Emmy is good then don't talk to me because i can't handle it."

[Brodybaby03]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 11:51pm

Oh MY!
Well I saw it tonight finally.
I was really nervous.
But as soon as that music started I was SUCKED in!

Lemme say this, I agree...as usual...with Munk , it was not BAD it was VERY Flawed!
Emmy Rossum had no POWER whatsoever, nothing she sang had any sort of a build and "Think of Me" was so boring aside from everything going on around her.
Jennifer Ellison.....BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS....and WHY does she sound like a 12 year old on hellium!?!
Patrick Wilson was so....ick...I don't know. That DAMN wig, he looked SO good during "Masquerade"....or Vogue....but any other time he was a mess! And his voice, it was so boring. But his acting and that whole MESS of a scene in the end underground, OH MY GOD! I was embarrassed for him! It was awful.
Gerard Butler....I am so TORN on this man. He made me question my love for Adrien Brody when he started taking Emmy Rossum down to the horse but as soon as he sang I knew Adrien Brody was the man I belonged to, now and always.
I really did like him though. His singing was just....I don't know. For a minute I thought Sebastian Bach had been cast. Just kidding, I love Sebastian.
But Gerard was just vocally.....no thanks!
I LOVED Miranda Richardson. She was INCREDIBLE!
Minnie Driver...are you Italian, or Puerto Rican and could you have learned to lip sync better????
Emmy Rossum....CLOSE YOUR MOUTH!
The midget, although appropriate....very disturbing to me.
UM although I ENJOYED the black horse beneath the Opera House...where the hell does he live???
And I know this is going to make me sound like an idiot but oh well...I'm lost...What is with the "hand at the level of your eye" thing??? What does that mean!? HELP! I've seen the show 3 times and I still don't get it!
OK that is all!

[Shawk]

Posted: 12/29/04 at 11:56pm

^ If you keep your hand at the level of your eye, the Phantom can't throw his lasso/punjab/garotte around your neck, or if he does, your hand is in the way so he can't strangle you.

[Brodybaby03]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:01am

God Bless You!

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:07am

Abotu the miming--wasn't much of the singing done "live"? Shumacker and all claim they invented a process where much of it could be recorded and performed at the same time

E

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:13am

No, POTO's songs were pre-recorded.

And such a process would not be "invented" by Schumacher or anyone on the POTO crew -- it's a technique used by filmmakers for years. It was recently used in HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (John Cameron Mitchell sang most of his songs live, even though they sound crispy clean on film).

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:20am

I have never seen InTheMoney post on here before - or anything I can remember, so I don't know much about him/her. But it makes absolutely no sense to me to not see a movie because of sound clips and/or a "making of" show that you didn't like. It's your loss, and that's very naive.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:29am

Why not? From what InTheMoney has seen of the movie, it's not appealing to him/her. How is that any different from any other movie?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:35am

What Munk and the "you should really spend your hard-earned cash (or your parent's) on this before deciding you don't want to see it" crowd fails to realize is that you don't actually have to eat a crap sandwich to know that you're not going to like it.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:40am

I saw it last night, and I have to say I enjoyed it despite it's many (and boy are there many) flaws.

Rather than just repeating what I think many have so eloquently said about the faults of this movie, I just wonder if this movie was the wrong choice to bring on screen. There are times where I was confused on whether or not they wanted us to think this was a realistic world or some fantasy land. Not to mention, I found it very hard to buy that the Phantom was some scary haunting figure who people feared, especially in the Masquerade scene where it looked like someone could have just punched him out and arrested him.

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:52am

I swear Shumacker went on about how much (not all) of it was recorded live on set. The "new process" was to get a great sound quality in such hard to record (audibly) sets--quite diff than recording Hedwig etc

E

[cturtle]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:56am

yeah, he sang for a LONG TIME in the MASQUERADE number. i thought it was odd also that everyone just stook perfectly still and listened to his threats. (except raoul, of course, who was sneaking around as usual under his rhoda morgenstern hair.)

[InTheMoney]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 7:41am

No, munk - I'm just a pedant. The lack of attention to detail in this film would piss me off BIG time.

I KNOW I won't enjoy the film - I dislike the singers, I am amazed at the fact they apparently forgot the fundamentals of the characters, I HATE the new swordfight scene, I especially dislike how stagey they've made Masquerade when it could have been a glittering swirl of colour (ok they wanted to colour-code it so it wasn't too ott, but did they HAVE to go with the washed-out look of gold, silver, white & black), and I greatly dislike the new orchestrations (welcome the 1980s!).

On the side of "I'll like it", there falls the fact that it looks very pretty and includes Miranda Richardson & Simon Callow in the cast.

You think I should see this film because why? Looking at the like/hate balance, I think I'll wait til I can see it free on cable, thanks.

[secret-soul]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 10:18am

silver, white and black were used to keep the focus on the Phantom and Christine. The Phantom is, of course, in his Red Death costume, and Christine's dress is pink to show that she is already tainted by him. For the film, I found that it worked. The colors, I think, would have dragged the attention away like it does in Moulin Rouge's Can Can number.

[beacon1]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 10:48am

I LOVED Patrick's performance in The Final Lair scene. He looks so heroic and so in love.

His "Don't throw your life away to save me." and *tears up*
"I fought so hard to free you" were so passionate I wanted to jump into the lake myself and rip off those ropes and give him a big old hug...

Sorry...I'm just a sucker for the dashing hero and, pair that with Patrick Wilson and I'm a goner. His leap onto the white charger just about did me in! LOL! It was so cliche romance but I fell for it. When he rides up in those black pants with the open white shirt and leaps off the horse, runs up the steps, warns Christine and brandishes the sword all in almost one motion I thought: Woo Hoo--this is textbook romantic and it works! --and the audience around me seemed to love it like I did.

So...I love a bit of schmaltz! :o)

[DBillyP]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 12:25pm

"silver, white and black were used to keep the focus on the Phantom and Christine."

I was too busy making mental notes of the choreography, while also wondering why Raoul spoke those several lines in the middle of the song, to notice the colors!

[J-Pill]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 2:04pm

"The Phantom is, of course, in his Red Death costume, and Christine's dress is pink to show that she is already tainted by him."

That's an interesting observation; I didn't pick up on the significance.

I saw it twice, by the way. For Miranda Richardson. Updated On: 12/30/04 at 02:04 PM

[secret-soul]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 2:37pm

i believe i got that little tidbit from the masquerade window at Bloomingdales

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 4:54pm

"'The Phantom of the Opera' is really a rock'n'roll show masquerading as an opera." - Andrew Lloyd Webber

hehe!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/04 at 5:02pm

Actually I think that lines up pretty squarely with what many people on this board think, when they think "rock and roll."