This movie looks to me like some type of experiment. Something like "Let's see what we could do with the Phantom of the Opera story to shock people a bit and make it different". Because it's totally different from any other Phantom of the Opera take.
First, the phantom is not deformed, he's an abandoned child raised up by...rats in the catacombs of the Opera. If I remember correctly (there has been a while since I've read the book by Gaston Leroux) there is a weird character in the book that has the power to command the rats and is always walking around in those catacombs surrounded by rats, and the Phantom was avoiding him and letting him be (yeah, looks like all weirdos of Paris retreat under the Opera, I know). So here there's a mesh-up of this character and the Phantom: the guy is raised by rats, is able to command them, has telepatic powers (where did that come from?? no idea), loves music and plays the orgue. How he learned to talk, play the orgue, or got his things down there in the caverns we don't know. He's not at all deformed, looks more like a rock star (weird looking wig, by the way, but it's supposed to make him look sexy...), so you also ask yourself why he likes staying in those catacombs when he could be living quite normally above ground. Perhaps his weird childhood left its marks upon him and he's not adapted to live differently. In fact he's a pretty sick pervert, bites the tongue out of a woman's mouth, is killing people left, right and center, and almost masturbates in front of his rats(!). Well he does kill a child molester on the other hand...
Christine is in this movie no Saint Mary, she's always almost fainting with desire when she sees the Phantom, and she can't decide if she loves him or not. One time she's offering herself to him like a slut, then she's all rebellious and shouts at him, telling him how much she hates him. It's the typical Italian love story this! Then later when the Phantom returns from his killing spree she shouts at him a bit more, he rapes her but she likes it, then she runs away into the arms of Raoul and tells him not to let her go.
Then there's a weird guy in the movie and his friend, a midget. These two weirdos like to hunt rats, and invent a steam motored vacuum cleaner machine with which they drive around in the caverns and kill the rats of the Phantom. That was so hilarious I almost chocked on my popcorn! Of course they're such bad drivers they hit a rock and the midget gets his head cut off. His friend then finds the Phantoms layer and watches the hot action going on between Christine and the Phantom. When he finally manages to get to the surface, he tweets to everyone the truth, that Christine is the Phantom's whore, which makes the Phantom become Batman, swoop on the stage and save her.
And here the plot becomes so laughable I thought I was gonna burst: Raoul appears and shoots the Phantom in one of the most ridiculous scenes ever, Christine suddenly realizes how much she loves the freak and cries like a baby while the Phantom is all like "Life goes on, dear girl". Then it all comes down, gore and slashing at the Phantom while Christine is in the boat with Raoul, screaming her brains out and crying, instead of jumping in the water to get to him (maybe she doesn't know how to swim?)
So a movie where I had a few good laughs, have been shocked a few times by the gore and some other stuff (Christine is the director's daughter, and she has some sex scenes in the movie with daddy-o filming, pretty creepy, but OK, artists are not to be judged like other people) and I'm not sure if I like the Phantom, but find him attractive nonetheless. If you want a movie completely different from the usual Phantom of the Opera, watch it, but be warned that it's an experiment.
First, the phantom is not deformed, he's an abandoned child raised up by...rats in the catacombs of the Opera. If I remember correctly (there has been a while since I've read the book by Gaston Leroux) there is a weird character in the book that has the power to command the rats and is always walking around in those catacombs surrounded by rats, and the Phantom was avoiding him and letting him be (yeah, looks like all weirdos of Paris retreat under the Opera, I know). So here there's a mesh-up of this character and the Phantom: the guy is raised by rats, is able to command them, has telepatic powers (where did that come from?? no idea), loves music and plays the orgue. How he learned to talk, play the orgue, or got his things down there in the caverns we don't know. He's not at all deformed, looks more like a rock star (weird looking wig, by the way, but it's supposed to make him look sexy...), so you also ask yourself why he likes staying in those catacombs when he could be living quite normally above ground. Perhaps his weird childhood left its marks upon him and he's not adapted to live differently. In fact he's a pretty sick pervert, bites the tongue out of a woman's mouth, is killing people left, right and center, and almost masturbates in front of his rats(!). Well he does kill a child molester on the other hand...
Christine is in this movie no Saint Mary, she's always almost fainting with desire when she sees the Phantom, and she can't decide if she loves him or not. One time she's offering herself to him like a slut, then she's all rebellious and shouts at him, telling him how much she hates him. It's the typical Italian love story this! Then later when the Phantom returns from his killing spree she shouts at him a bit more, he rapes her but she likes it, then she runs away into the arms of Raoul and tells him not to let her go.
Then there's a weird guy in the movie and his friend, a midget. These two weirdos like to hunt rats, and invent a steam motored vacuum cleaner machine with which they drive around in the caverns and kill the rats of the Phantom. That was so hilarious I almost chocked on my popcorn! Of course they're such bad drivers they hit a rock and the midget gets his head cut off. His friend then finds the Phantoms layer and watches the hot action going on between Christine and the Phantom. When he finally manages to get to the surface, he tweets to everyone the truth, that Christine is the Phantom's whore, which makes the Phantom become Batman, swoop on the stage and save her.
And here the plot becomes so laughable I thought I was gonna burst: Raoul appears and shoots the Phantom in one of the most ridiculous scenes ever, Christine suddenly realizes how much she loves the freak and cries like a baby while the Phantom is all like "Life goes on, dear girl". Then it all comes down, gore and slashing at the Phantom while Christine is in the boat with Raoul, screaming her brains out and crying, instead of jumping in the water to get to him (maybe she doesn't know how to swim?)
So a movie where I had a few good laughs, have been shocked a few times by the gore and some other stuff (Christine is the director's daughter, and she has some sex scenes in the movie with daddy-o filming, pretty creepy, but OK, artists are not to be judged like other people) and I'm not sure if I like the Phantom, but find him attractive nonetheless. If you want a movie completely different from the usual Phantom of the Opera, watch it, but be warned that it's an experiment.