posted
Saw Phantom over the weekend. OSC is absolutely right about it. Although I like ALW's songs more than OSC does, the comments he made about the movie are dead on.
The possibilities of film were not explored at all in this retelling. Every change they made was for the worse in comparison to a live production.
What I didn't see him comment on was the absolutely bizarre failure to synch the overdubbed vocal track with the lip movements during MOST of the songs. Now, it should be possible to do that correctly if one is working on as high a budget film as this had to have been. I mean, the actors go into a booth, they watch the thing on screen and sing it like they did during shooting.
But sometimes the lyrics had changed (again...why?) and sometimes they just couldn't sing along with themselves. It was awful.
It was like watching a foreign filmed dubbed in English. Except it was an English film dubbed in English.
Very disconcerting.
Okay. They guy playing the Phantom -- his first and last songs are the same thing, but he should sing them differently. The emotion is completely different. I think they used the same recording twice. It was so bad the first time through and fit so perfectly at the end.
I wanted to like this one. Really I did. But I now must go back to see the stage performance again to purge this disaster from my memory. I really think that a high-school production would've been better.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I saw Phantom today, and while I enjoyed it, I also have to say that many of OSC's comments were right on target. I especially agreed with him about the quality of the voices - they were not operatic voices, for the most part.
Bob, JaneX and I noticed the lip-synching, too, it was way too obvious.
I enjoyed the music, though, and didn't notice any particular problems with the harmonies, to tell the truth.
OSC has a good point, as well, when he states that many of the characters' actions make no sense.
The costumes were fabulous.
But I wondered whether Christine wasn't getting a little cold standing outside with snow falling in all those low cut dresses. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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Wow, I didn't even notice the lip-synching trouble. But then again, I'm way too easily impressed by quality costumes and sets and I spent many of the scenes just examening the trimmings of a dress or suit the entire time...
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Yup, that's the movie where they cast Arnold as Hercules, but decided that American audiences wouldn't be able to understand him. They dubbed somebody else's voice over all his lines. It is *sooo* weird watching the Arnold but not hearing the Arnold.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I saw it Sunday. I liked it, although I liked the stage version three years ago better. The phantom did not feel ...tortured enough. He was too human. Perhaps that was just the natural result of the cameras and lighting, or maybe he just didn't act or sing the way I would have liked, I'm not sure which. I didn't feel any of the rather painful emotions I am used to feeling when I watch the Phantom.
I thought the women all did just fine, Christine's voice didn't bother me at all and I thought she looked perfect. The scenes and outfits looked amazing too.
I knew that everyone except Carlotta did their own singing so I didn't notice any sync problems. I noticed that there was not enough explanation of the hand at the level of the eyes thing and there were a few other changes that should have been left alone. I finally understood how Carlotta was made to sound like a toad, though. I never understood that part before. And I understood a bit more about Christine's father and how his words affected her relationship with Phantom.
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