This production dates from 2006; it is the second film of the Magic Flute for which James Levine is the conductor. If I much prefer the first version he conducted, from 1991, that's not to say that I don't find some pleasures in the new one. Julie Taymor won two Tony Awards for her design of The Lion King on Broadway, and this Magic Flute is visually splendid: The Queen of the Night's costume alone is a knock-out, with those wonderful butterfly wings, and Papageno wears a great green jumpsuit that suits his athletic bearing very well. But sets and costumes can't be everything in an opera film, we must judge the singers too. Matthew Polenzani has a fine lyric tenor and makes the boring character of Tamino somewhat appealing, Nathan Gunn in his jumpsuit has an irresistible charm and agility on stage (I see that he was voted one of the 100 sexiest men by People; they weren't wrong). Rene Pape seems a little ill-at-ease as Sarastro--he would probably like to sing in German. Erika Miklosa sings the Queen well, and seems not to be troubled by the coloratura.
The real problem for me is the rushed nature of the performance, with all the cuts to the music. It clocks in at 112 minutes, whereas Levine 1991 is 169 minutes. So we are missing almost a solid hour of music. There is a magical moment when Tamino meets the Speaker near the end of Act One; Bergman uses it in the puppet theatre scene in The Hour of the Wolf. Tamino asks "when will the darkness be cast aside... when shall my eyes see light?" The chorus answers, "soon, youth, or never". It's very slow, very dramatic and effective: one of Mozart's most gorgeous moments. It seems to pass unnoticed in this performance--Polenzani even seems a little befuddled by the haste of it all. This Magic Flute is for people who have never seen an opera, and who don't want too many moments that will stop them from texting.