Marquise's POTO Movie Review

[Marquise]

Posted: 12/24/04 at 11:44am

i went to see POTO last night. i have to say i wasn't impressed. i think emmy rossum was good, she's beautiful as christine. miranda richardson was also good as mme. giry. patrick wilson is okay as raoul, he had the right "pretty boy face" and "pretty boy voice" that's needed for the role. of all the talk of minnie driver "walking away" with this movie i was greatly disappointed. all she did was walk on mouth the words to someone else's recordings and then when she wasn't lip synching all she did was throw tantrums in a horrible thick italian accent. gerard butler was okay as the phantom...he sounds better in the movie than he does on the CD, which leads me to believe they used different takes in the actual movie than they did on the CD or the whole thing was just mixed differently because vocally he came off much better on screen.

now for my biggest "pet peeve": WTF was up with that "Masquerade" sequence. The choreography was soooo out of place for the movie's time period. It look like a battle between the House of Omni and the House of Infiniti...a big gay drag ball that came off as a bad imitation of Madonna's 1989 MTV Video Awards performance of "Vogue"...the number was done soooooo much better on stage.

and what was up with the candelabras rising from the lake in the POTO number...it looked corny on screen...it looked great on stage because it was theatrical, but whatever works on stage doesn't necessarily translate well to film. also the arms sticking out of the walls holding candles in the corridors leading up to the Phantom's lair was corny too...some people just laughed when that came on screen.

MY FAVORITE SCENE: "All I Ask Of You"...this scene was beautifully performed by Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson

SECOND FAVORITE SCENE: "The Phantom of The Opera" only because of Emmy's facial reactions to Gerard while he's singing, she looks like she's falling under his power during this song and sometimes acting is more about re-acting than anything else and she does a good job here not to mention she looks hella-sexy!

Overall I was disappointed because I wanted this to blow me away like CHICAGO did. Unfortunately it didn't even come close.

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/24/04 at 12:14pm

I read a review yesterday that said that the Chandelier doesn't fall till the end of the movie. That bothered me for some reason. I just watched the cast on The View and Barbara Walters made it a point to say that everyone sang their own parts. I was suprised that Minnie Driver didn't correct her. But I hear that Minnie Driver actually sings the closing credits song. I am seeing it tomorrow. I figure, I will see it for myself and form my own opinion.

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 12/24/04 at 1:52pm

"I read a review yesterday that said that the Chandelier doesn't fall till the end of the movie. That bothered me for some reason."

This is the prblem with theatre people going to see theatre movies. Any difference is startling for the plain fact that it's a change from the show. You have to forget about the show when you go to the movie. How do you know the chandelier wasn't suppossed to fall after PONR the whole time and they just changed it in the musical because they have time durring intermission to raise it again?