Thank god for a sane, intelligent, knowledgable and informed review of this movie.

I'm a Phantom fan. I've been a Phantom fan for 15 years, I love the original novel as well as the musical, and various other versions of the story. I've seen the show upwards of 40 times. I've also worked in theatre AND film, so I am perfectly aware of the differences film calls for.

And this movie was an insult to Phantom fans who care about the integrity of the story and its characters, and an insult to everyone who has appeared in the show on stage.

It changed the conceptions of the characters so completely that they were vapid, shallow, hollow echoes of the characters as they are in the stage show or in the book. It's not that they were *different* that annoys me - it's that they were so much worse. They lacked the depth, they lacked the many levels, they were Joel Schumacher doing his "young and sexy" cast with overblown sets and no sense of the magic, mystery, beauty, intensity or meaning of the source material.

Gerard Butler can't sing, which is a stalling point for an Angel of Music. His acting was okay, but didn't reach any of the levels the role really requires - lacked intensity, lacked passion, didn't feel real, didn't make me cry.

Emmy Rossum, in spite of being in the children's chorus of the Met in her youth, shows no trace of vocal training, and her doe-eyed vapidity really got on my nerves.

Just stunned and saddened that so many Phantom fans are so bowled over by having ANY version of the musical as a movie that they love this Hollywood bastardization, and its hunky barely disfigured stud of a Phantom, almost uncritically.