Human-like Phantom vs. Ghost-like Phantom

I get what you're saying and I agree to a point. I think while the Phantom's ghostliness and tricks are impressive on stage the format is totally different. On stage we can have suspension of disbelief so when the fireballs are shot out etc we can forget that there's a technician sitting a floor or so above us (in some theatres you can see the tech box) controlling it or the performers wearing microphones despite the fact that they wouldn't have been invented in the 1800s or the stage with wings and lights. With film that doesn't work because film seeks to create total reality because it has the budget to do so. So we don't see sets moving in transition like on stage we cut to next set where we see every detail including we don't see the technician or microphones because they are edited out. So those tricks we see in the show work because they are designed for theatre on film it would perhaps be a hard sell because we aren't so willing to "buy" the illusion we want it to be real every single bit of it if someone says they can fly we don't want to see the wires we want to see them fly. So making the Phantom a "magical ghostly " figure wouldn't have worked because a part of us as the audience would say "well yeah but he probably did that using x y z" it wouldn't be as effective.

HOWEVER they could have invented new ways for the Phantom to appear more mystical there were plenty of Phantom films before this one and before the stage show some even like the Robert England version did give him some form of actual "magic" or hyping up the mysterious ghostly aspect of him and it did kind of work.

Yet ultimately my argument and why I don't mind a demystified, humanised version of the Phantom is because that ghostly element wasn't the intention of this particular film. If you watch interviews with the cast and crew particularly Joel Schumacher its clear what they wanted to do with the movie. They wanted to make it essentially a period romance musical like Moulin Rouge. Joel constantly mentions the love triangle and how he wanted to make it a sexy love story and the sexual connection between Christine and the Phantom/Erik that's the way he was approaching the film. It became less about the Phantom 's story and his impact on the opera houses which include the ghostly aspects like appearing in silhouette behind the dancers in Il Muto etc and became more about the love triangle between him Christine and Raoul. So the way he wanted to do that was to make Phantom come across even more a viable love interest for Christine than the show which included making him younger, making him more handsome (while I didn't agree with it lessening the extent of the deformity) and of course explaining his tricks humanising him as much as possible. By taking away the magical aspects what the film is going for and I think succeeded in is something which is debated in the stage show but made clear in the film Christine is not purely hypnotised by the Phantom there's an attraction there as well. You believe their relationship could work if the Phantom wasn't so physically and what's more emphasised in the movie psychologically damaged whereas in the show there are many who view the show as Christine not loving the Phantom at all just feeling pity for him. It's even clear with how they interpreted Raoul as well, who is sort of there in the show's fill the generic love interest role in the show in the movie he's less of a stock character with a pretty face and more three dimensional, He's given more depth as the story in the film is shown through his memories in black and white and with the horse and the sword fight he's made more heroic so you can see the choice Christine has is a hard one. So in terms of what they were going for I think they succeeded I think it does reduce the Phantom's power which makes him less of a threat from an audience perspective but it makes the severity of his damage and the relationship with Christine more tragic and poignant in that adaptation anyway if it had been a different director with a different vision it might not have worked so well.

That being said I do love the show and the 25th anniversary and I think the movie and show work well for different reasons. I don't mind if the phantom is more magical and human as long as it's played well.

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