Nothing takes the teeth out of a villain more than an early defeat. Now, there are two big problems with this scene:įirst, it occurs just before the final act, where the Phantom is supposed to be at his most dangerous. Raoul winds up walking away with Christine, leaving the Phantom in the graveyard. In this duel, Raoul bests the Phantom, but Christine begs him to spare the Phantom’s life. The idea of such a showdown is a decent one, but the execution is dumb beyond belief. While the original story and most of the adaptations present a guy who is a sinister mastermind, the 2004 Phantom never does anything to show that he’s a danger to Christine and Raoul.Ĭase in point: written into this movie and not appearing in previous adaptations is a swordfight between the Phantom and Raoul in a graveyard. The plot of The Phantom of the Opera doesn’t work if the Phantom doesn’t present any sort of credible threat.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter all that much, because… Butler, but Banderas has it all over him when it comes to singing the title song: In other words, he could have done a Phantom who had some sex appeal while also playing somebody who is physically ugly.Īlso, no offense to Mr. He’s also got sex appeal out the wazoo, but more due to natural charisma than rugged good looks. Banderas, for the record, is about 10 years old than Butler but has more range to him as an actor (possibly because he’s had more experience). Supposedly, Antonio Banderas was in the running for the Phantom, but Webber decided he wanted somebody who was younger and sexier. Butler was 35 in this role, and the makeup crew made him look younger, not older. That would place him at leasy in his 50s or 60s. In the film, Madame Giry explains that she met the Phantom as a child. Gerard Butler is also way too young for this role. If you want Gerard Butler’s sexy body all over your film, you cast him as Raoul, who is supposed to be attractive. If the audience isn’t repulsed by the character, then they don’t understand Christine’s plight. As I’ve said time and again in these reviews, I think making the Phantom sexy ruins some of the story. The movie does everything possible to emphasize his sex appeal, including turning the Phantom’s legendary disfigurement into the equivalent of a bad sunburn. The popular consensus on Gerard Butler is that he’s a sexy man. The problem is that he was horribly miscast. This movie doesn’t suck because of him – he did what he was told to do.
Nothing he’s done as an actor has really blown me away, but I’ve never walked out of a film thinking he stunk it up, either. Let’s get this out of the way right now – I don’t have a problem with Gerard Butler. The result is a garbage film that has a lot of flash but little substance.Īllow me to explain why I think this is a terrible movie and an even worse adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s classic story. Schumacher’s career was still recovering from the debacle that was Batman and Robin, and Webber had lost whatever magic he once had. This film is a result of director Joel Schumacher teaming up with Andrew Lloyd Webber. I’ve been putting this off because I’m not looking forward to the hate mail, but let’s go ahead and talk about the 2004 Phantom of the Opera movie.Īpologies to all the Gerard Butler fangirls who love this film because of its dreamy title character, but if I could describe this film in one word, it would be suuuuuuuuuuuck.