> But it is not his fault that he can't sing. Webber must accept all of the
> blame for this terrible re-make.

I am a big Gerry Butler fan, and thought that the movie was wonderful. Am also a fan of GB's other movies, and a very, very big fan of Patrick Wilson. Emmy Rossum is lovely and wonderful. That having been said, I am also a big fan of POTO in all its forms, and you are right--the Phantom is supposed to be ugly, ugly, ugly. His voice, in contrast, is supposed to be angelic, in other words, otherworldly, like MC's, not sexy and untrained and earthy, like GB's. Would love to see a version that is true to Leroux's book. The Phantom's face is supposed to look like a hideous skull.
After all, the magic is in the fact that Christine comes to love him despite his horrible appearance. It would be easy to love someone like GB!
An aside: I also object to the fact that Raoul beats the Phantom in that egregious sword fight. The Phantom would never, ever be beaten by a young boy like Raoul! Once again, the Phantom's love for Christine is heartbreaking because he is such a control freak, and at the end, he has both Raoul and Christine totally in his power, in fact, Christine has shown that she is willing to stay with him, yet, out of love, he lets them go.
As I said, I really enjoyed the movie, but had to put aside my own vision of the Phantom. So I can very much empathize with you.
Sorry to all for being so long-winded. But I just love everything Phantom, and couldn't resist!
His power over me grows stronger yet...