watchin'

[lauralh]

In high school my friend Kelly and I would totally play The Phantom Of the Opera original cast recording and sing along all the time, so it was only natural that I'd want to watch Schumacher's version of it. It was pretty damn close to the original musical, obviously a few changes for movieland, but it was a lot more faithful than, um, Hitchiker's was. So I didn't have nearly as many brain-freezes during it.

Of course it's still a really silly musical. The music is still worth listening to, but the paper-thin plot and such are just um yeah. Also the guy they got to play for the Phantom wasn't so great of a singer. I mean, I just kept comparing him to Crawford and he came up way short. But he wasn't really bad, either. Anyway I enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed Gaiman's 1602, which is a really eerie retelling of the old Marvel universe (from the Kirby/Lee/Ditko days) if the characters had been born in the late 1500s, in Elizabethean England. Dr. Strange, Daredevil, Nick Fury, the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom, and so on. Of course my fanbrain kept freezing on the young girl Virginia Dare, because I couldn't place her. If anyone else has read it and knows, pls. comment. Anyway it's totally fanfic, sure, but it's Gaiman.

Comments

[katyakoshka.livejournal.com]

The only Virginia Dare I can think of is the Roanoke colony gal, the youngest of the "vanished" colonists. But that's it. Only remote fanfic relationship is that she's an historical background character in Greg Keyes's latest series.

Beyond that, I got nuthin'.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

ok, so it's just a historical connection rather than a comic bookdom one. thanks!

[perich.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Virginia has no "default Marvel" analogue.

I found the story cute, like most Gaiman stories. I liked it just fine.

Christine, you must have been dreaming. . .

[thiswickedkitty.livejournal.com]

That's funny cuz I had a friend in middle school with the soundtrack and we used to sing it all of the time. I really can't imagine you singing that, haw! You're just not as dorky as me.
Anyway, I know just about song by heart, but have never seen ANY version of the play.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

no one has ever said that to me before. I was a church choir girl, man!

this was the first time I'd ever seen any version of the play either.

[velvet.livejournal.com]

Wait, you never saw the musical??

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

I GREW UP IN LOUISIANA.

[thiswickedkitty.livejournal.com]

Dorky teenage choirgirls=sexy grown-up beyotches (okay, with some issues)

[tyrven.livejournal.com]

I'm not a huge fan of Phantom of the Opera because of how dated the music feels and because of how overly dramatized it is. Nonetheless, I thought the movie was worth watching for the first five minutes. I adored the falling back in time sequence.

I was disappointed by the initial waterways scene (where he ferries her to his lair); I thought it was better done in the play (which I recall being more blue than orange).