[miketwalker]

I do agree they didn't have as much strength in the phantom's character in the movie. However, the actresses were simply amazing, their voices were beautiful. I really thought they did an awesome job bringing it from broadway to movie, because they didn't "hollywoodize" it much, if at all... which is very, very, very rare (and probably the reason it wasn't much of a box office success).

I really liked the way that they were able to do the visual effects to keep it both interesting as a movie, but also to enhance what a play would otherwise have... they were able to keep long songs with not very much movement still entertaining for the average movie-goer. The one thing about the movie that nags me to no end, is the lip syncing. I think they tried to make it seem more realistic, and the director had the actors say the words on camera as if talking normally... I mean, yea it looks more natural as a person talking, but there's no way someone's going to hit those high notes with that much power with their lips barely open... I think anybody with any musical background would be bothered by that, I know I was.

Otherwise, I thought that the casting was pretty decent... especially on the female end. I do find it interesting that they picked the phantom up singing in a bar... he definitly had no acting skills, and I think that's why he couldn't give it as much power, but considering he learned his acting as he went, I think he did a pretty good job. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie version too.