The Phantom of the Opera
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 22, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
14
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The cast is good, the score is sublime, the visuals are sumptuous and it speeds along with a delirious romantic power that, if you let it, can sweep you away. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
If you've been seduced by Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage version of "The Phantom of the Opera," you'll fall in love with the gorgeous, splendidly cast film. Read full review
80
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
The much-publicized decision to go "younger and sexier" with the casting--a move that turns out to pay off handsomely, enhancing and enriching the material. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Phantom, still running on Broadway after sixteen years, is a rapturous spectacle. And the movie, directed full throttle by Joel Schumacher, goes the show one better. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Scotsman Gerard Butler does a fine job as the charismatic, ghostly character. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I am recommending a movie that I do not seem to like very much. But part of the pleasure of moviegoing is pure spectacle -- of just sitting there and looking at great stuff and knowing it looks terrific. There wasn't much Schumacher could have done with the story or the music he was handed, but in the areas over which he held sway, he has triumphed. Read full review
70
VarietyDerek Elley
Sumptuous pic version, which evokes the original show while working as a movie in its own right, is lit by a radiant, vocally lustrous perf by teenaged Emmy Rossum. Read full review
70
Washington PostPhillip Kennicott
It's gorgeous nonsense to look at, and in director Joel Schumacher's hands, "Phantom" emerges as one of those queer works of art that actually improve somehow as they get tackier and more removed from the original. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Isn't just for music fans. It's more accessible than that, thanks to Joel Schumacher's bright direction and a few storytelling embellishments. Read full review
63
PremierePeter Debruge
Fans will cheer at Schumacher's faithful inflation of Webber's vision, which interprets all that pomp and bombast as if the show were some sort of overblown Vegas attraction. Read full review
60
EmpireJo Berry
The end result, although entertaining and well-crafted, certainly isn't on the same breathtaking scale of, say, Alan Parker's epic "Evita." Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
What the film most damagingly lacks though is a sense of mystery and danger. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The result isn't liberated from the stage; it's trapped, with waxworks literalness, onscreen. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
It's sometimes hard to tell the characters from the candelabra. This lavish screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical is so chockablock with decorative detail the human figures are often competing with the decor for attention. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Ultimately, however, appreciation of The Phantom of the Opera will hinge upon your opinion of Lloyd Webber's skills as a composer. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Finally, you get down to the music, which is easy to take for the first hour, before it starts doubling and tripling back on itself, in an unnerving and seemingly unending spiral of repetition. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
With Lloyd Webber onboard not just as composer but also co-screenwriter and producer, the film seemed destined to stay true to its roots rather than attempt to transcend them. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
But beneath the bombast it's pure paste and tinsel and, robbed of the thrill of live performance, the show's deficiencies are glaringly apparent. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
Depending on your predilection, the movie version of The Phantom of the Opera is about as good - or as bad - as its phenomenally successful stage original. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Flamboyantly over-the-top, visually kinetic. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The acting and crooning are sadly uneven, making this a shaky comeback vehicle for the screen musical. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Watching the passionless Phantom, with its geriatric story-framing device, gooey dimestore romanticism and tawdry pop ballads about unrequited yearning, feels akin to dying and waking up in your parents’ easy-listening-radio hell. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Teen romance and operetta-style singing replace the horror elements familiar to moviegoers, and director Joel Schumacher obscures any remnants of classy stage spectacle with the same disco overkill he brought to "Batman Forever." Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
One can't help but wonder how much better this film would have played straight, without its characters in seemingly constant song. God help us if there's a film version of "Cats" in the works. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Combines fingernails-on-blackboard audio agony with bamboo-under-fingernails physical torture. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJorge Morales
This Phantom's an overblown mess of ostentatious razzmatazz. Sure, all the ingredients of camp are there (oh, the hubris!), but this isn't a so-bad-it's-good classic. It's worse. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
The real problem with "Phantom" is the problem with Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals in general. It's a slow-moving orgy of lowbrow grandiosity that's as tedious as it is overblown and pretentious. Read full review
30
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Lord Lloyd Webber's thorough acquaintance with the canon of 18th- and 19th-century classical music is not in doubt, but his attempt to force a marriage between that tradition and modern musical theater represents a victory of pseudo-populist grandiosity over taste - an act of cultural butchery akin to turning an aviary of graceful swans and brilliant peacocks into an order of Chicken McNuggets. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Adding an additional layer of cheese to a project that already reeks hopelessly of Velveeta, Schumacher pumps up the empty spectacle, stranding his fetching-but-lifeless mannequins amid giant sets and overblown production numbers. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
This film "Phantom" takes everything that's wrong with Broadway and puts it on the big screen in a gaudy splat. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
An experience best likened to being battered by hurricane-force winds generated by an organ with all stops pulled permanently out.
30
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
We should not be surprised, then, if this bellowing beast of a movie looks and sounds like the extended special-edition remix of a Duran Duran video. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Phantom still an auditory lobotomy. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Crashing chandelier, crashing bore. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
In Schumacher's relentlessly arrhythmic and tone-deaf film, Gerard Butler plays the title role as if he were just plucked out of Monty Python's lumberjack chorus. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
It has a little something to irritate everybody. People looking for romance will find only cardboard lovers. People looking for a resounding musical will find it odd that the camera runs away from the lip-synching cast. And people looking for opera -- well, shame on you. Read full review
20
SlateDavid Edelstein
Made for the most excruciating two-and-a-half hours I've ever spent in a theater. Read full review
20
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
Runs two hours and 20 minutes and plays like 10 days in the county jail. Read full review
16
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It adds up to a truly taxing couple of hours: ham acting, visual noise, aural torture, elementary plotting and unconvincing emotions. Read full review
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