'The Phantom' (2010)
By Adam Beck • MovieMassacre.com
Directed by: Paolo Barzman
Written by: Daniel Knauf and Charles H. Knauf
Released by: Vivendi Entertainment
"Reimagined and Reloaded!"
Even though the character has been around since 1936, I first discovered the Phantom in a rarely talked about cartoon series from 1994 titled "Phantom 2040". Easily one of my favorite cartoons, the show was based around Kit Walker, a 24th generation superhero known as "The Phantom" who fights crime in the city of Metropia in the year 2040. The show was more adult oriented than most superhero cartoons (along the lines of Aeon Flux) and seemed to mesh well with my teenage sensibilities at the time.
A few years later in 1996, Paramount Pictures released a theatrical version of The Phantom set in the 1930's, starring Billy Zane. Being a fan of "Phantom 2040" I initially wanted to see this movie, however I quickly lost interest after all of the negative reviews it seemed to garner upon its release. I won't lie, when I first requested this blu-ray I was under the assumption that I was getting the 1996 theatrical movie and was quite surprised to find out that this was an entirely new film, having premiered on the SyFy Channel a few months back. We all know that SyFy has a pretty weak track record when it comes to their "original movies" and I was quite skeptical about the quality of this film before watching it.
'The Phantom' (2010) follows a young college student named Chris Moore (played by Ryan Carnes) whose life is forever changed after the discovery of his childhood adoption and his true identity as Kit Walker...the last known descendant of a series of superheroes dating back to the 1500's. Kit is taken into the jungles of Bengalla where he is given advance martial arts and weapons training in order to prepare him for his role as the 22nd "Phantom". Of course no superhero movie is complete without some sort of villain or dilemma...here The Phantom is forced to take on the Singh Brotherhood, a group of politician-like criminals who are looking to use television equipment to secretly brainwash individuals into committing heinous crimes.
Instead of doing a 90 minute movie, 'The Phantom' is actually a 3 hour mini-series broken down into two separate parts. Part 1 of the series deals with your basic character and story development, as well as some pretty decent action/suspense moments which all lead up to Kit becoming "The Phantom". Part 2 involves Kit's training and transformation into the Phantom character and him taking down the Singh Brotherhood in an action-packed finale.
If I'm being perfectly honest, this film surprised the hell out of me. The entire cast was excellent, the action sequences were exciting and the plot was intriguing. The one thing that really stuck out to me early on when watching the blu-ray was the excellent picture quality. There's a lot of fantastic overhead shots of the city and a nearby riverbank in which every single speck of dirt seemed to pop on the screen. I would even go so far as to say that the picture quality on this rivals many big budget Hollywood films I've seen, which is rather impressive. Even though this was intended to be a one-shot deal, 'The Phantom' would work great as a weekly TV series for SyFy. In fact it's sort of a shame that it's not a regular series, as the ending really doesn't have a whole lot of closure for the viewer and it leaves you wanting more. Maybe if this does well enough on home video then SyFy will consider it.
If you're a fan of "The Phantom" or superhero movies in general then this is one release you'll certainly want to pick up. Some hardcore fans might be upset with some of the updating done to the character in this film. Even I was a little put off by the updated costume and would have rather seen him in the traditional Phantom garb. But overall I felt this was a pretty faithful adaptation of Lee Falk's legendary creation and above all else was an extremely entertaining movie. Definitely one of the best mini-series that SyFy has ever aired.
Written by: Daniel Knauf and Charles H. Knauf
Released by: Vivendi Entertainment
"Reimagined and Reloaded!"
Even though the character has been around since 1936, I first discovered the Phantom in a rarely talked about cartoon series from 1994 titled "Phantom 2040". Easily one of my favorite cartoons, the show was based around Kit Walker, a 24th generation superhero known as "The Phantom" who fights crime in the city of Metropia in the year 2040. The show was more adult oriented than most superhero cartoons (along the lines of Aeon Flux) and seemed to mesh well with my teenage sensibilities at the time.
A few years later in 1996, Paramount Pictures released a theatrical version of The Phantom set in the 1930's, starring Billy Zane. Being a fan of "Phantom 2040" I initially wanted to see this movie, however I quickly lost interest after all of the negative reviews it seemed to garner upon its release. I won't lie, when I first requested this blu-ray I was under the assumption that I was getting the 1996 theatrical movie and was quite surprised to find out that this was an entirely new film, having premiered on the SyFy Channel a few months back. We all know that SyFy has a pretty weak track record when it comes to their "original movies" and I was quite skeptical about the quality of this film before watching it.
'The Phantom' (2010) follows a young college student named Chris Moore (played by Ryan Carnes) whose life is forever changed after the discovery of his childhood adoption and his true identity as Kit Walker...the last known descendant of a series of superheroes dating back to the 1500's. Kit is taken into the jungles of Bengalla where he is given advance martial arts and weapons training in order to prepare him for his role as the 22nd "Phantom". Of course no superhero movie is complete without some sort of villain or dilemma...here The Phantom is forced to take on the Singh Brotherhood, a group of politician-like criminals who are looking to use television equipment to secretly brainwash individuals into committing heinous crimes.
Instead of doing a 90 minute movie, 'The Phantom' is actually a 3 hour mini-series broken down into two separate parts. Part 1 of the series deals with your basic character and story development, as well as some pretty decent action/suspense moments which all lead up to Kit becoming "The Phantom". Part 2 involves Kit's training and transformation into the Phantom character and him taking down the Singh Brotherhood in an action-packed finale.
If I'm being perfectly honest, this film surprised the hell out of me. The entire cast was excellent, the action sequences were exciting and the plot was intriguing. The one thing that really stuck out to me early on when watching the blu-ray was the excellent picture quality. There's a lot of fantastic overhead shots of the city and a nearby riverbank in which every single speck of dirt seemed to pop on the screen. I would even go so far as to say that the picture quality on this rivals many big budget Hollywood films I've seen, which is rather impressive. Even though this was intended to be a one-shot deal, 'The Phantom' would work great as a weekly TV series for SyFy. In fact it's sort of a shame that it's not a regular series, as the ending really doesn't have a whole lot of closure for the viewer and it leaves you wanting more. Maybe if this does well enough on home video then SyFy will consider it.
If you're a fan of "The Phantom" or superhero movies in general then this is one release you'll certainly want to pick up. Some hardcore fans might be upset with some of the updating done to the character in this film. Even I was a little put off by the updated costume and would have rather seen him in the traditional Phantom garb. But overall I felt this was a pretty faithful adaptation of Lee Falk's legendary creation and above all else was an extremely entertaining movie. Definitely one of the best mini-series that SyFy has ever aired.
| Support our website by purchasing the film through our affiliate site on Amazon.com |
|
|---|
