Ach! Again no posts to honour such a fantastic author.
I read The Phantom of the Opera in two days, not to say that's much, but I loved it so much that as soon as I had finished it - you guessed. I went right back to the beginning and started all over.
Again, he combines fact and fantasy in such a masterful way that it is hard to see which is which. The sweeping story, the suspense, the magnificent cultural setting were what made it special to me. Also, the special effects he uses at various times makes the book...so stunning.
But now, the movie. Who has seen it? Yes, I mean the new, Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical.
I must admit I was awfully disappointed. They included not half the dialogue in the book and almsost all sense of suspense and drama was lost. It was just a caricature of the real work.
Of course, it's true that it was a musical, and that they spent most of their time singing so they lost the intricacies of the plot. But that is no excuse! The Sound of Music, for example, is also a musical, and they spent a fair deal of time talking. For me, The Phantom was basically just all singing, and boring singing. Two straight hours of broadway singing does not appeal to my taste.
I'm starting a poll; what did you think about the movie? Does it parallel the book? Could any movie parallel the book?
Loki