Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Good movie but grossly overrated

The acting in this movie is really good.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

If you love the Gaston Leroux novel or The Andrew Lloyd Weber musical don't watch this!This movie failed on every level! ~It tried to be scary and it FAILED ~It tried to be romantic and it FAILED ~It tried to be sad and it Failed (I Take that back the movie was pretty pathetic.)If this movie was called anything else besides The Phantom of The Opera I wouldn't be so mad. I've seen other Phantom movies that are totally different yet still great to watch! (Phantom of The Paradise and Phantom of The Mall)This one doesn't even follow closely to the Phantom story about: a young man is disfigured and hides himself from society yet falls in love with a beautiful movie. This movie can't even get that right!The gore was okay(unnecessary at times) and so were the production designs but other than that this movie was a mess!Even the ending was stupid too. It took the Phantom 7 shots and 2 stabbings before he could die?! WHAT?Plus this movie has unlikable characters, pointless scenes, confusing scenes etc.I'm sorry Dario but this is probably the worst Phantom movie I will EVER see. Want true advice from a complete stranger who cares about you?DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE!!

This is by far one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Beginning with a very fast approaching 'fantasma' (no real introduction of the characters)and a following love-story (both in 1 minute) the movie is quite fun sometimes. Only the blood-splattering scenes from time to time and the slight feeling that there is no sense behind all the actions is a bit disturbing. Unfortunately there is no really suspenseful scene, despite that my girlfriend left the room twice. Don't watch this if you are not stoned or intoxicated by other chemicals. The whole story is nuts, including an out of place reference to Edgar Degas... The only element worth in this movie is the music, so I gave it a fair 2.

The Phantom of the Opera (1998) 1/2 (out of 4)Dario Argento's horrid telling of Gaston Leroux story about a mysterious Phantom (Julian Sands) who becomes obsessed with a singer (Asia Argento) and tries to turn her into a star even if it means killing people. I still remember the first time I watched this film I couldn't believe how such a wonderfully talented director could fall so quickly and so fast. This film is a complete disaster from the word go and in fact it's so incredibly bad that I can't help but revisit it ever so often just to try and figure out what the director was trying to do. The original story has been butchered beyond control but I don't blame the film for trying to do something new and on its own but at the same time whoever had the bright idea to center the film around rats should have been fired. I'm really confused as to the importance that Argento puts on the rats and the incredibly bad comic scenes with the rat catchers is just beyond belief. Even worse is the humor that Argento puts in the film and this includes a scene where one of the rat catchers get his hand caught in a trap and then we see rats eating off his flesh. There's even a very bad scene where the "star" singer shows up the younger girl and hits her with her wardrobe. Even the performances are rather bad with both Sands and Argento sleepwalking through their parts. It's clear that the two leads have zero chemistry together and their love scenes are just incredibly embarrassing. Sands is really bad in his part as he seems to be moving around like a blind lover who doesn't really what he's doing. Even the style that Dario is known for is missing here as the entire film looks extremely cheap and ugly. The only thing that saves this from a BOMB rating is the fact that Asia has a couple nude scenes, which are certainly the highlight of the movie.

Dario Argento's Phantom Of The Opera (1998: Starring Julian Sands, Asia Argento, Nadia Rinaldi, Andrea Di Stefano, Lucia Gazzardi, Aldo Massasso, Iztvan Bubik, David D'Ingeo, Zoltan Barabas, Kitti Kerri, Leonardo Treviglio, Enzo Cardogna, Itala Bekes, Tania Nagel, Csilla Ward, Gianni Franco, Gabor Harsai....Director Dario Argento, Written By Dario Argento.Released in 1998, this is Italian cinema director Dario Argento's Phantom but not the Phantom of the Opera as most people are familiar with nor the truest and most faithful adaptation of the old French novel by Gaston Leroux. This one is clearly a horror movie without any touch of romance. Fans of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and the earlier Phantom movies from Lon Cheney's classic performance to Claude Rains, Herbert Lom and Charles Dance, this film is entirely on a different level. It falls under the category of Italian horror and international casting in an unpleasant, disturbing and gory independent film. No wonder it did not do well in the box office and most Phantom fans aren't even aware of its existence. Dario Argento cast his own daughter in the role of Christine Daee, and British actor Julian Sands as the Phantom. This time around, the Phantom is NOT disfigured, which is the strongest violation of the original premise. Instead of having facial deformities, the Phantom is an abandoned child who was raised by telepathic rats that kill people. Living under the opera house with his rats, he's developed telepathy himself and a dirty, dark, predatory and disgusting personality. He looks like either a vampire or rock star but there is no real sense of romance. His feelings for Christine are carnal and nothing more. She becomes his lover but other than music and her voice, theirs is a purely sexual relationship. Because of this, and because he kills anyone he dislikes, he's not a sympathetic figure. Without the romance, we can't really feel anything for this Phantom who is pure evil. The story is only partially faithful to the original tale. It is set at the Paris Opera of the 1870's and the Count Raoul De Chagny is Christine's choice of a mate, but this time around we genuinely feel that she belongs with the normal, secure and more romantic Count than the sadistic and no good Phantom. The performances are over-the-top and boring, even Carlotta, the fat soprano who thinks she is above all else. The classic chandelier drop is here but this time it's far more bloody than usual. There are scenes of graphic violence that earned this movie an R rating and ought not to be viewed by sensitive audiences or children. The music is beautiful, haunting and evocative of the period (with the use of the aria from Lakme) and the cinematography, costumes and art direction is truly very Phantom, including the "Degas ballerinas" touches, but there is very little to like about this movie. For comic relief, there is a rat exterminator and a midget which seem absurd and out of place for this tale. The real problem is the lack of direction and lack of romanticism. It's just one movie of Dario Argento's dark ouevre that happens to have the Phantom of the Opera as subject, but he twisted it around to make it his work and his style. Unless you're a fan of the Italian director, you'll otherwise find it too dark and disturbing. The only other "horror-themed" Phantom I can think of is the 1989 Robert Englund Phantom, an American film starring the actor of the Freddy Kueger films, but even that one had more interesting qualities. This one is too sick.