THE PHANTOM (1996)

THE PHANTOM (1996)

Tagline: The ghost who walks. The man who cannot die.

(Action, Adventure, Comedy) [PG]

Join the club. Many of us have killed him over the years. But he keeps coming back.

So in this one, a super-rich criminal psychopath named Xander Drax (played by Treat Williams) wants ultimate power which he believes he can obtain by gathering three magic skulls. Of course, The Phantom (played by Billy Zane best known for CRITTERS) who is a legend to some, and immortal to others is not going to let that happen. Known as “The Ghost Who Walks” The Phantom must travel to New York to stop the chaos while along the way being assisted by Diana Palmer (played by Kristy Swanson, best known for BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) and bothered by Sala (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones).

So, what I am guessing happened with this freakin thing is that not enough people were familiar with or cared about The Phantom Comics. This is pretty bizarre since the character pre-dates both Superman and Batman making him basically the first comic book hero (1936). With this cast and the production value of this movie, it should have been a huge hit. Maybe it was the fact that the costume for The Phantom himself was a bit too much, or purple for people? Maybe BATMAN FOREVER (which came out a year earlier) left a bad taste in people’s mouths for anything superhero-related? I am kind of grasping at straws here. I guess it could have also been that people couldn’t quite let go of Billy Zane’s creepy-as-heck performance in DEAD CALM. In fact, that movie made me never want to see a film of his again. I got over it though.  

This movie is a stripped-down ROCKETEER type flick with some action elements you might see in an INDIANA JONES movie, only it’s got more heart. This isn’t all that shocking, however, because the director Simon Wincer, actually shot 10 episodes of a couple different incarnations of the INDIANA JONES TV shows (The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles). This was before they built heroes suits with padding so Billy Zane actually had to fill out this suit which is reported to have taken a year. This movie also has a loose MORTAL KOMBAT tie, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was Shang Tsung in that movie and played The Great Kabai Sengh in this one. 

This movie is kind of an under-the-radar cult classic. I couldn’t find any glaring flaws, from the dialog to the cinematography, and even Sala’s character development doesn’t feel forced or ridiculous. Kristy Swanson is fantastic and Billy Zane plays the character extremely well. THE PHANTOM isn’t just a superhero movie you probably blew off and forgot, it’s actually pretty freakin wonderful. There is something to be said about genuine swashbuckling absent the gritty brooding grunting scowls of today’s edgy superhero fare. 

I give THE PHANTOM a 6 out of 7. I might have changed up that suit just a tad, but that’s about the only thing I can think of that I wasn’t 100% behind.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

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