The Boy Phantom - Movie Review!

I finally was able to sit down and finish SyFy's Phantom update. I started it Sunday night but fell asleep. Carving out enough time to finish it during the day has been difficult but at last I was able to, and it's just about what I expected given the bit I'd already seen.

Somewhat dull.

I'm a lover of Lee Falk's Phantom, but I'm not reflexively against updates of the character to make it work in a different medium. But alas this one while having virtues doesn't keep enough visual details to make it distinctly a Phantom project. If this mini-series had been title "Dark Avenger" it would've been pretty entertaining. But for a project starring a classic hero like the Phantom and for it to last four hours and not have one single encounter with any baddie in anything remotely resembling a jungle is just not Phantom-like by my standards.


And then there's the suit. It's just not recognizably The Phantom. There's too much change here. Modify it sure, add the armor if you wish, but keep the elements of the original somewhat intact so that I can know this is the Phantom. This costume is just not getting that done. It's too generic and it's not sufficiently mythic enough to work, too practical. I see the influence of the second Batman movie in this project quite a bit, too much so really. Oh and did you notice that while in the suit he can't really get his arms to folded completely at his side, they just sort of flay out a bit like a snowsuit gone wrong.

And then there's the height. I don't want to be mean, but why in heaven's name was an actor physically shorter than practically everyone else in the ensemble cast as the classic heroic lead. He's an okay actor, but he doesn't communicate Phantom to me at all. Even in the suit he is visually small. It works for Wolverine but not this character. The Phantom needs to visually dominate the scene, he needs to by his very presence communicate control and power and intelligence. The little fellow obscured in the armor here doesn't do any of that.

And then there's the pacing. I know it's a mini-series really and there are some interesting twists in the plot, but by and large the story mopes along at a very creaky pace, especially the second half which actually should pick up momentum. The villains aren't really scary despite their posturing and while I liked the notion of the twins as opponents it wasn't really developed enough to make the match up really sing like it should.

And then there's the fighting. Despite setting up the fact that Kit/Chris is extremely agile, his fighting style as the Phantom is basically to take bullet hits repeatedly and then shoot his opponents into submission. He only really makes use of his agility twice in the story and then it's not all that compelling, nor does it seem core to his style.

But there are a few details I did like. While I think it's a pretty complicated scenario to get Kit lost for two decades and be raised by other folks, it does as the story suggest make him just like the original Phantom, a man who must develop his role as a hero and not someone reared for it from birth. That's an interesting dynamic for this classic hero, a neat spin. But that said, I think he comes into his role a bit too easily.


I see they've set up a series here, and I rather liked the double twist at the end. But hopefully if they ever do more (which I doubt) they recast the main role, someone who doesn't look like a kid on screen, and while they're at it make that suit a bit more Phantomy.

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