You are never going to mistake "The Phantom" for anything more than campy fun, but it is enjoyable campy fun. Billy Zane is just a bit goofy in the role. Catherine Zeta-Jones is the not-quite-bad bad girl Sala. Kristy Swanson, of the original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie, is swaggering girl friend Diana Palmer. She reminds me of Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie. Treat Williams is corny bad guy Xander Drax. None of these actors treat their roles seriously, and there is enough over-acting for two movies, but it all seems intentional.

We learn at the beginning of the movie that most of these characters have a history that begins well before this movie. Quill (Patrick Remar) has even killed the Phantom once. Later we find that a lot of people have killed the Phantom. It is sort of like a rite of passage for bad guys (and a throwaway one-liner). Of course, we know the Phantom can not be killed.

Xander Drax has attained an idea from "Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom." Find three mysterious skulls and achieve a power greater than any known to man. The skulls are really cool. When you find two of them, they burn a hole in a map to point the way to the third. Far more efficient than having them point in a center direction so that it takes a significant portion of the movie to find the next skull. Instead, we zip to the island, having a big fight, kill some people off and move on. However, I am getting ahead of myself.

At the outset of this movie we recognize how fun it is going to be. The bad guys force a boy to drive a truck a rickety hanging bridge (perhaps another carry-over from "Temple of Doom"). The bridge threatens to break, but the boy makes it across. During the bad guy's escape they force the boy to drive across again, but this time the bridge really does start to break and the Phantom has to rescue himself and the boy.

There are later fun scenes with the Phantom rescuing Diana from a ship and escaping in a plane. We have seen hundreds of cowboys drop from a building or a rock into a saddle. How about the Phantom dropping from a biplane into a saddle? The Phantom heads to New York City, proving that jungle people can survive in the Big Apple. After all, the Big Apple is just another kind of jungle. Billy Zane even gets to slide down elevator cables and escape just in the nick of time.

This movie has all the elements of a fun adventure movie. The characters have just the right combination of believability and unbelievability that the entertainment factor is high. When people get hurt it is so cartoonish that you never can keep their injury in perspective. The only drawback is that the original Phantom comics were never that campy.

There are some downsides to this movie. The plot seems to borrow way too many elements from the Indiana Jones movies, especially from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." As noted above, the camp factor was high. This movie may have been too campy for fans of the original Phantom; not as extreme as the difference between the original Batman comics and the campy 1960s series, but similar.

One interesting and fun choice for supporting actors was Patrick McGoohan as the Phantom's Dad. McGoohan is a wonderful actor with credits in both television and movies.

A viewer will not mistake this movie for something with Academy Award potential. The movie is way too derivative. However, it is highly entertaining as long as you do not analyze it too much. Grab a bowl of popcorn, gather the family, and turn your brain off for a while.

What a movie to watch, its so much fun and very tongue-in cheek humor that it makes me wanna see it again. I now own this on VHS! A rare accord to watch. The casting of Billy Zane as the super hero clad in a purple suit is a great choice. A master craftsman at acting. I hope they would make a sequel to this great movie.

i liked the movie but i wish it was done on a grander scale sort of a like the old b movies of the hollywood golden era like ex. indiana jones. I luved the city set pieces i thought they were awesome but the jungle scenes were a little lax, i wish they would have used the old "darkest africa" notion in the film because you have to admit around that time period africa was largely uncharted .I think billy zane was great in the role but i wish the movie had a lot more to it, it had so much promise but all in all a good movie .

Now I can admit that this is not the greatest film of all time, but I love it. As a kid I used to read the comics in the news paper from the Phantom. When I heard that this movie was coming out, I taped the trailers from it so I could watch them over and over. I went the day it came out to see it and they gave out rings just like the Phantom. Since then I lossed the ring and the movie brings back good memories from when I was a kid.

i grew up reading the phantom's adventures and recently saw this dvd. i love this movie! nice job!