Retro Movie Review: 1996’s The Phantom

Ah, Billy Zane… You were THIS CLOSE, man.

This close to being a movie star, that is… The Phantom was your one chance, your big break… and then the movie bombed.

And I still wonder why.

Now, granted, it’s not a GREAT movie – it’s got some cheesy elements and plot holes galore, but… unlike The Shadow (another comic-inspired movie I recently re-watched) it is a solid piece of entertainment, and Zane provides a great performance as The Ghost who Walks.

The only thing I can think of was that there just wasn’t that many fans of the classic Lee Falk comic strip as the studio thought, and even this serviceable adaptation just never had a sizable audience to begin with.

The plot involves ancient magic skulls that need to be protected from the bad guys (lead by Treat Williams, with Catherine Zeta Jones as the main “henchman”) and of course, the Phantom has to protect them. The story is as thin as a slice of deli salami, but it does the job. Thank goodness no recent movie maker tried to use a magic skull as a plot device…

Ahem.

I joke, but the universe itself added the punchline, because this was Jeffrey Boam’s last screenplay (he died four years later) – before this he had written Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and had been working on the story for a fourth Indy film when he passed away… a film that eventually featured magic skulls.

Special mention has to be made to Patrick McGoohan – he narrated the film and appeared as the Phantom’s dead father. It was his next-to-last major role, after he was robbed of his best Supporting Actor Oscar for Braveheart (he also appeared in that year’s A Time to Kill), and seeing him chew up the scenery is another special pleasure this movie provides – McGoohan could do a slow burn better than anyone.

There are rumors that there will be a “reboot” Phantom movie upcoming, and as a fan of the original comic strip, I hope so – it’s a great character, and deserves another chance at big-screen success. If not, well, we have this film, imperfect but entertaining.