Phantom of the Opera movie review
Dec. 28th, 2004 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anam_moon James and I got to spend some time together yesterday. He came over after his boss let him out of work early at around one. He wasn't thrilled with his hours being cut, but at least we got to spend some time together. We stopped by a travel agency at the Hub to try to get some help with finding the best(affordable) accommodations and car rental rates in Sweden. James was thinking that we might not be able to financially swing this for 2005, but we're giving this a try to see if she can help us. I'm hoping it will still work out.
After speaking with the travel agent neither of the restaurants in the Hub that we wanted to go to were open so we wandered around through Bed, Bath, & Beyond. That place stirs up my nesting instincts. Sigh, want my own place. Stupid, expensive Bay Area. There were some amazing things there. Want own place, want own place, want own place.
We tried this new Italian place over within the Hub. Cute little place and the food was pretty good. It's nice having another option for a place to eat within Fremont that isn't fast food or chinese food. Don't get me wrong, I like chinese food, but how many chinese restaurants does one town need?! For that matter, shouldn't there be a limit on how many Chinese Buffets are allowed to set up shop in town?! My chocolate mousse was... very VERY good. I think I liked the bites I had of James' dinner better than mine, but mine was good. Our waiter was pretty cute too. (grin)
From dinner we wandered over to take a look to see if Borders had season five of The Simpson's. They do! What's wrong with my store that we don't even have a listing in the computer for Season 5?! Bad store! From there we headed toward Union City to see Phantom. We got there about fifteen minutes after seven and found out that the movie had started at seven and that there wasn't another showing till about nine-thirty! Groan! We were still bound and determined to see it so we went over to Borders at Union City Landing and hung out there for about two hours. I spent most of that time looking at a Baby Blues comic strip book and admiring their selection of calendars. I was given a couple different Susan Seddon Boulet calendars for Christmas and a John William Waterhouse calendar. Yay!
All in all I'm very pleased with the film adaption of the play that I'm so taken with. The gal who plays Christine Daae has a lovely voice, she's a very promising talent. Gerard Butler (Phantom/Erik) does not have the vocal range to play Phantom. I'm not saying that purely because I am biased toward Michael Crawford in that role, that is part of it, but Butler really can't handle some of the range in the Phantom songs. He sounds slightly nasally a few times while singing. He can do the breathy, seductive singing voice just fine and he's fine to look at (shiver), but otherwise he really can't pull it off.
I must say that Christine Daae runs about scandalously immodest for a young Victorian woman. He must have really had her swooning, I think most Victorian ladies would notice that all of their legs were showing from beneath their dressing gown. Minor detail. I just thought I would mention it because it amused me, in a time where the legs on tables weren't even supposed to show she is sitting around with the band of her thigh high stockings showing. They didn't even have her wearing a garter belt! How inaccurate! Seriously though, it was lovely, I was pleased, thrilled by getting to see it on the big screen. I will own it! The young man that played Raoul was...okay. I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed by him, but I don't think Raoul is a character that you have to be wowed by for the production to work. I think, for me, the fact that I already love the character that Butler was portraying went a long way toward letting me forgive him for his shortcomings. My only other issue with the film was that some of the original lines that they sing on the stage they spoke on the screen, but said them with the same rhythm they would have if they were singing them. That sounds absurd. No one talks that way, except perhaps Will Shatner and folks mock him for it. Raoul it scares...don't put me through it...Raoul I'm frightened, etc. spoken doesn't work. Sing it or speak normally and transition into song. The sets were gorgeous as was the costuming. It was very cool seeing a close up look at the masquerade. Mr. Webber changed some things around, like when the chandelier falls, but I was okay with it.
Might I just add....my, but it was cold and rainy last night!
After speaking with the travel agent neither of the restaurants in the Hub that we wanted to go to were open so we wandered around through Bed, Bath, & Beyond. That place stirs up my nesting instincts. Sigh, want my own place. Stupid, expensive Bay Area. There were some amazing things there. Want own place, want own place, want own place.
We tried this new Italian place over within the Hub. Cute little place and the food was pretty good. It's nice having another option for a place to eat within Fremont that isn't fast food or chinese food. Don't get me wrong, I like chinese food, but how many chinese restaurants does one town need?! For that matter, shouldn't there be a limit on how many Chinese Buffets are allowed to set up shop in town?! My chocolate mousse was... very VERY good. I think I liked the bites I had of James' dinner better than mine, but mine was good. Our waiter was pretty cute too. (grin)
From dinner we wandered over to take a look to see if Borders had season five of The Simpson's. They do! What's wrong with my store that we don't even have a listing in the computer for Season 5?! Bad store! From there we headed toward Union City to see Phantom. We got there about fifteen minutes after seven and found out that the movie had started at seven and that there wasn't another showing till about nine-thirty! Groan! We were still bound and determined to see it so we went over to Borders at Union City Landing and hung out there for about two hours. I spent most of that time looking at a Baby Blues comic strip book and admiring their selection of calendars. I was given a couple different Susan Seddon Boulet calendars for Christmas and a John William Waterhouse calendar. Yay!
All in all I'm very pleased with the film adaption of the play that I'm so taken with. The gal who plays Christine Daae has a lovely voice, she's a very promising talent. Gerard Butler (Phantom/Erik) does not have the vocal range to play Phantom. I'm not saying that purely because I am biased toward Michael Crawford in that role, that is part of it, but Butler really can't handle some of the range in the Phantom songs. He sounds slightly nasally a few times while singing. He can do the breathy, seductive singing voice just fine and he's fine to look at (shiver), but otherwise he really can't pull it off.
I must say that Christine Daae runs about scandalously immodest for a young Victorian woman. He must have really had her swooning, I think most Victorian ladies would notice that all of their legs were showing from beneath their dressing gown. Minor detail. I just thought I would mention it because it amused me, in a time where the legs on tables weren't even supposed to show she is sitting around with the band of her thigh high stockings showing. They didn't even have her wearing a garter belt! How inaccurate! Seriously though, it was lovely, I was pleased, thrilled by getting to see it on the big screen. I will own it! The young man that played Raoul was...okay. I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed by him, but I don't think Raoul is a character that you have to be wowed by for the production to work. I think, for me, the fact that I already love the character that Butler was portraying went a long way toward letting me forgive him for his shortcomings. My only other issue with the film was that some of the original lines that they sing on the stage they spoke on the screen, but said them with the same rhythm they would have if they were singing them. That sounds absurd. No one talks that way, except perhaps Will Shatner and folks mock him for it. Raoul it scares...don't put me through it...Raoul I'm frightened, etc. spoken doesn't work. Sing it or speak normally and transition into song. The sets were gorgeous as was the costuming. It was very cool seeing a close up look at the masquerade. Mr. Webber changed some things around, like when the chandelier falls, but I was okay with it.
Might I just add....my, but it was cold and rainy last night!
