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Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera

2004

Joel Schumacher

Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Minnie Driver, Patrick Wilson ...

6.1

10,180

Musical. Romance Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera tells the story of a disfigured musical genius (Gerard Butler) who haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, waging a reign of terror over its occupants. When he falls fatally in love with the lovely Christine (Emmy Rossum), the Phantom devotes himself to creating a new star for the Opera, exerting a strange sense of control over the young soprano as he nurtures her extraordinary talents. [+]

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Joanna Berry Empire	"The end result, although entertaining and well-crafted, certainly isn't on the same breathtaking scale of, say, Alan Parker's epic 'Evita.'"	NEU
United States	Derek Elley Variety	"Sumptuous pic version, which evokes the original show while working as a movie in its own right, is lit by a radiant, vocally lustrous perf by teenaged"	POS
United States	Carina Chocano Los Angeles Times	"The real problem with 'Phantom' is the problem with Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals in general. It's a slow-moving orgy of lowbrow grandiosity that's as tedious as it is overblown and pretentious"	NEG
United States	Claudia Puig USA Today	"The Phantom offers a couple of hours of escapist and macabre fun (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"Isn't just for music fans. It's more accessible than that, thanks to Joel Schumacher's bright direction and a few storytelling embellishments"	POS
United States	Anthony Lane The New Yorker	"This bellowing beast of a movie looks and sounds like the extended special-edition remix of a Duran Duran video"	NEG
United States	Sid Smith Chicago Tribune	"Depending on your predilection, the movie version of The Phantom of the Opera is about as good - or as bad - as its phenomenally successful stage original"	NEU
United States	Wesley Morris Boston Globe	"It has a little something to irritate everybody. People looking for romance will find only cardboard lovers. People looking for a resounding musical will find it odd (...) And people looking for opera -- well, shame on you.	NEG
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"The screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical lacks both authentic romance and the thrill of memorable spectacle."	NEG
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"It's questionable whether fans of the musical will be enamored with this adaptation. The energy that characterizes a live performance is absent, resulting in a production that often feels sluggish and slow-moving."	NEG

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