I think some other comments here are harsh, especially towards the performance of Emmy Rossum, who I thought made the film. Her performance visually (i.e. expressions etc) is mesmerizing. I'm sure a lot of this is down to Joel Schumacher who successfully steers the film away from just putting the stage show on to film, but has actually created something powerful in its own right, so I believe comparisons of the stage show to film are unreasonable.
My only niggles are technicalities, the Phantom wears a mask which only goes just above his eyebrows in the Ball scene (and shows no deformation) and yet when the normal white mask is removed later the entire left side of his face is deformed. The lip sync hing is often poor, especially in 'Think of Me' which is disappointing, especially in the knowledge that all but Minnie Driver recorded their own singing parts anyway.
The Soundtrack has been given a spring clean and it really benefits from it, removing some of the synthesized feel of the original and giving it much more of an orchestral grandeur.
All in all, this film really took me by surprise. As I said above Stage to Screen comparisons do feel somewhat inappropriate with this film, but I was never that fussed about Phantom before or after seeing it on Broadway. I can safely say that this film has converted me.
