I saw the film today and thought it was splendid. I saw the stage show when it was still in Toronto years and years ago and I fell in love with it then. My current vocal teacher played Christine in the production in Munich, Germany for ten years before retiring.
Anyway, I liked the film very much. Visually it was much better than seen on stage. Emmy Rossum is amazing, and Minnie Driver was so PERFECT for the diva Carlotta.
**SPOILER**
I did NOT like that the chanedlier did not fall until the end. It's supposed to fall at the end of act 1 (which is right before the Masquerade number). I don't know why Schumacher put it during the Don Juan scene. Point of No Return is such a tense song anyway it doesn't need to added excitement of the chandelier fall. And i thought the Phantom makeup could have been much much much scarier. You could barely tell how greusome he was supposed to be.
I also think Toni and Rosie would agree with me how silly it is that Meg the ballerina had her pointe shoes on the ENTIRE time. In scenes that took place hours after the production numbers there she was in her pointe shoes walking down scary secret corridors, lol. I know as soon as I was done with the show I ripped those suckers off fast as I could.
