'Phantom of the Opera' 2 Disc Special Wide screen Edition (PG-13)

I have anticipated this movie for a while now and knew it was close, but not going to anything like the book or stage productions.  What I didn't anticipate is how the movie turned out.

This reminded me of a showcase for Emmy Rossum to show off her singing talent and seem to cram a lot of stuff into such a tiny space of time.

How do I rank the talent?

1. Emmy Rossum-wonderful Pipes
2. Minnie Driver-wonderful Diva
3. Patrick Wilson-wonderful devotion to his part
4. Miranda Richardson-for a bit part she did ok
5. Gerard Butler-I felt nothing for the Phantom

How can you create a Phantom and have audiences laugh instead of cry or pity the clearly obsessed stalker?  Some related his cape wearing and hiding in dark cave like places to Batman.  When the Phantom was to share his pain of overhearing the love communication between Emmy & Patrick's characters did you really feel his pain?

I have seen better acting, which including a few if not a single tear from a persons eye.

There was true anger when Emmy ripped the mask from Gerard's face-it reminded me from 'Attila' days.

The extras of the cast doing a sing-a-long was very entertaining and hearing some of the cast talking about the film was great too, but there could have been so much more supplied to a 2 disc set that was missing-or I just expected more.

Sadly, there was no emotional attachment to the Phantom's plight and so the DVD that was bought will just be kept on the shelf next to all the other Gerard DVD collection movies and not likely to be watched again.

At the end there could be an additional tiny flick of his cape when Patrick's character looks around and a little odd that the children Patrick & Emmy's characters had {Beloved Wife and Mother} were there with their father at the cemetery, but looks like just a nurse from a nursing home.

I did enjoy the extra song and scene cut out from the movie.  It should have been kept in-it was wonderful.

3 stars.