The fictional island of Bengalla is home to the superhero
Phantom, who is said to be an immortal warrior fighting evil forces. This
proves to be false, the Phantom is a role passed down from father to son when
the previous Phantom dies. Kit Walker (Billy Zane) is the twenty-first Phantom,
returning from America to take up the mantle after his father (Patrick McGoohan)
died. Meanwhile, Kit’s ex-college sweetheart Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson) is
investigating a lead for her uncle’s newspaper, ‘The Tribune’; the businessman Xander
Drax (Treat Williams) is planning the theft of a rare artefact. Once Drax
discovers Diana’s plans, he sends his two of his hired help, the Sengh Brotherhood
member Quill (James Remar) and the sky-pirate Sala (Catherine Zeta-Jones) to
kidnap her. Kit finds himself on a mission to save Diana and stop Drax from obtaining
the three Skulls of Touganda, which grant their owner enormous power when
united.
The Phantom has some nice
production design; the streets of 1930s New York at night are crowded with
yellow taxis, pushing through the smog. The tribes of the Bengalla jungle live
in treehouses, crisscrossed with rope bridges and pulley systems. The Sengh
Brotherhood lair is located in a cavern system, the main chamber constructed
from the remains of an old ship, complete with the indispensable pool of
sharks. Oh sorry, did I forget to mention that this film is an absolute
cheese-fest? Our hero is essentially a
gun-toting modern Tarzan, saving the local kid whilst swinging on a vine and
galloping through the jungle on his white stallion Hero. For a superhero that
is often likened to a ghost, the Phantom is pretty conspicuous, both in his
bright purple suit and his secret base in a skull-shaped rock formation. The
Phantom and Diana leap from a plane onto Phantom’s horse, before it crashes
into a cliff face. Whilst in New York, he hops across the car roofs, jumps onto
a police horse before charging down the street after Diana. The Phantom is fun in its ludicrous
nature but the action sequences and fights themselves are boring and mundane. The
sword-fighting towards the end is the only enjoyable fighting sequence in the
movie. Some musical stings are awkwardly edited in and are badly timed,
breaking the immersion. The plot could have used some trimming, cutting out
some of the extraneous scenes.
The Phantom suffers
from some one-note characterisations and could have benefitted with some more
character development. Diana’s main job is to insist she can take care of
herself before getting captured, pushing over a bad guy once in a while and
making moon eyes at the Phantom. Kit/The Phantom is all earnest sweetness with
the occasional quip, although he has some inconsistencies. He was educated in
America yet he doesn’t know the true value of the precious gems he hands over
to a cab driver? Sala is a slap-happy henchwoman, who becomes obsessed with
Diana’s boots and tries to steal them for herself. Sala’s main character trait
is jealousy, envious that the Phantom prefers Diana over her, until she
suddenly switches to being best buds with Diana, bonding over their aversion to
lecherous men. The big baddy Drax brings the straight-faced ham to this cheese
board, as he drawls out his lines during his ‘My Evil Plan’ slideshow and hurls
a spear into the back of a retreating board member.
Billy Zane is inoffensive and safe as Kit/The Phantom,
although it might have been nice for him to acknowledge the goofiness of it
all. Treat Williams is our discount Jim Carrey but the most fun to watch as the
villain Drax, a slimy businessman with a nasal voice. Kristy Swanson feels
underused as Diana and seems to be begging for a more substantial role.
Catherine Zeta-Jones appears to be enjoying herself as the sultry sky pirate
Sala, playing out her scenes with a wicked smirk.
The Phantom
has some interesting visuals, but it never hits that sweet spot of great
cheesy fun or so-bad-it’s-good.
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