Andrew Lloyd Webber's spectacular has entranced me. I recently watched (for the first time) the 2004 feature film adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera, directed by Joel Schumacher. Put simply, I had my jaw on the ground for the duration of this beautiful, beautiful creation.

The visual aspect of the film is stunning, from the tasteful contrast usage of black & white in some sections of the film to the incredibly rich, vibrant colour pallet used to bring alive the Opera-house & surrounding areas. The sets (created by the same people who created them for the stage show) look authentic and add much to the experience. The costumming of the characters is done well, and helps set the film in the correct time period.

But obviously the star of the show is the audio. Put simply, this film benefits from having one of the best soundtracks ever, being taken from the original stage show (but with 15minutes of extra audio written by Webber specifically for this film). The music is what makes me keep coming back to this film, as it is so memorable & so rewarding to listen to - you'll find yourself humming the music from it for days afterwards. The instrumental aspect of the sountrack was provided by a 110-piece orchestra, which shows itself in the film's rich sound quality. This film is best watched with a great pair of speakers.

The acting in the film is convincing and delivered with a passion by all the main characters in the film, lending much to the overall appeal of the film. Emmy Rossum as Christine Daae is outstanding and convincingly naive. Gerard Butler provides a powerful performance as the Phantom of the Opera, with a brilliant portrayal of a soul tormented by love and by a poor physical appearance. The other members of the cast perform their jobs with aplomb.

This film has made me purchase $90.00 tickets to the stage show, which is coming to Brisbane next year. If anyone who reads this has not heard of or watched the Phantom of the Opera - please, I implore you, do yourself a favour and watch it, and enjoy what is, in my opinion, one of the finest pieces of cinematography in recent years; and is one of the best musicals ever.

For the first time ever, the Australian games industry has passed the magic $1 Billion AUD mark, for the previous financial year. This surpasses total box office takings in Australia, and is a mere $290,000 away from DVD sales Down Under. It is also good to see that the release of the PS3 & Wii have had a positive impact on the level of spending in the market down here.

With an Xbox 360 Core system price drop having been anounced for Australia, (dropping the price $100 to $399.00, the price of the Wii); the release of Halo 3, BioShock, Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Unreal Tournament 3, Super Smash Bro's Brawl & other epic games (I'm pretty sure these games are coming out this year, sorry if I've got some wrong), this year the industry could very forseeably outdo DVD sales.

I think this calls for a celebration

:D

For an industry that had total revenue of more then $7.1 Billion US in 2005, the video-games industry is startlingly misrepresented and portrayed in the mainstream press. The games industry is generally shown to be a small, niche market, catering to mere children, and worthy of no more attention then an industry of this nature would normally receive. News and current affairs reports, documentaries and exposé's consistently fail to show that the games industry caters to a range of demographics almost as broad as Hollywood, and certainly too more than mere children. The average age of game players is 33 years old - hardly the prepubescent teenager the media generally makes it out to be. So why does the media continue to misrepresent the games industry? Why are games still seen, in some circles, to be socially unacceptable? Why do we have a Florida Attorney practically devoting his life to bringing down the video-games industry? Was film treated to this level of disdain by the mainstream press whilst in its infancy? These questions trouble me, as an avid supporter of the video games industry, and a gamer. Why aren't games treated with the respect they deserve as an entertainment form? Sure, games are slowly making inroads back into popular culture, but it seems like it is going to be a very long time before games have reached the acceptance that films have in today's society. And I think that this is a great tragedy.

Aqua-Vitae.