Saw Phantom of the Opera with mum, which was quite good. The visuals were so magnificently opulent that it would take a dozen repeat viewings to fully appreciate them, and the voices were much better than I expected them to be. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as other movie musicals I've seen, mainly because it didn't really offer anything beyond what the stage musical presented. Usually, movie musicals are either totally new (like NMBC) or offer a radically new spin or interpretation on pre-existing material (like Chicago or Moulin Rouge). Meanwhile, Phantom had fabulous visuals, but the script was essentially the libretto of the musical. I guess that should please the purists, and I suppose that was probably the intention, but I went in to the theatre wanting to experience something new and different.

I wanted a new spin. I wanted to not want to hit Christine in the face with a large fish. I wanted to be able to find it in my heart to ship Christine/Raoul for once, but nope, even on the silver screen, Christine/Raoul is duller than Buffy/Angel (oh, and that scene on the roof [All I Ask of You], where Christine and Raoul obliviously kiss, and then it pans over to the Phantom, seething behind the horse statue? Three guesses where my mind went, and the first two that aren't "the last scene of 'End of Days' [BtvS 7x21]" don't count. I wanted TheFirst!Christine to appear by the Phantom's side and make some snide comment.)

And now I've gone off on a major tangent about an aspect I didn't like, and I haven't said anything about why I did like it. One of my favourite bits came in the form of Minnie Driver as Carlotta. Oh my good gravy, she was fabulous! Her mannerisms were comic gold, and her costumes were fantastic. Listening to the CD, "Prima Donna" is one of my favourite bits from the show, though it seemed a bit flat in the movie version, despite the frantic busyness and energy of the visuals. It really didn't bother me that it wasn't her singing.

Was it just me, or did the dancers in black in the background of "The Point of No Return" conjure major "Roxanne" flashbacks? Why is it that I can't spell "conjure" properly on the first try ever since playing Conjur Woman in Dark of the Moon?

Uh... Meg/Phantom OTP? I'm going to go ahead and post this, as I am finishing this entry at 8:33PM, when it was dated 1:01AM, which is just silly.