Miscellaneous Movie Musings the Sequel

[flippyshark]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

What did you think of the play VS the subsequent movie verison of Phantom of the Opera?

Phantom as a play? Terrific fun, and I liked several of the tunes before I became permanently tired of them. But, I'd go again if someone bought me a ticket.

The movie? I like Gerard Butler, but he was miscast here. That high note in Music of the Night is a real cringer. Also, I wish he had actually been pathetically ugly, not incredibly handsome with what looked like a bad sunburn on only part of his face. I liked the lush production values, but found the whole thing lacked energy. Also, I didn't care for the habit of replacing sung recitative with spoken dialog, especially as they didn't re-write it AS dialog. They just spoke lyrics in a very stilted self-conscious way. (Almost like they were ashamed to admit they were making a sung-through musical! I hope the makers of Les Mis simply commit to the form and sing out throughout.) Not disastrously bad, but never thrilling either. It just kind of thumps along, very expensively. (Also, Minnie Driver seems to be the only one having anything like a good time with the material - maybe a little bit TOO good a time? I could have made a decent sandwich out of that ham!)

As for the film of Evita, as mentioned by Strangler Lewis, I like that one a lot more, and thought the montage impressive, telling lots of story visually. But, yeah, I could see how that could be exhausting.

Has anyone here checked out the Phantom musical sequel Love Never Dies? Now, THAT is some mighty bold musical misfire! (Based on a focused listen through of the cast album, not an actual viewing) I bet it never gets anywhere near a movie screen, and good thing, too.