Thoughts on Syfy’s The Phantom

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the new Phantom miniseries on Syfy (hate typing that).  Of course I thought it was going to be total garbage based on the trailer, so it didn’t have to do a whole lot to impress me.

What I liked:

I actually like the lead actor, this came as a complete surprise to me
I really liked the love interest, and you know how I feel about love interests in Superhero Movies, but for the Phantom, it’s always been a part of the character
The decision to make Guran female totally works
The interior of the Skull Cave set was very cool
They pretty much kept almost all of the Phantom mythology intact
The animated Historical sequence
The Training sequence
The suit was a pleasant surprise, I hated it less than I expected to
Keeping the trench coat and hat,  part of the mythology

What wasn’t as good:

The group that helps the Phantom being an organization and especially having a really stupid name that no one can say or even remember (including me)
Not having the bald guy be Guran, but it makes sense with the ending (I won’t spoil)
Chris’ parents murder being way to close to what I can only call Luke-esque
Not as good as the animated series Phantom 2040, find it on DVD if you can
It was way too long, it probably only needed to be one TV movie, not two.
Both Isabella Rosselini (who has really never been a very good actress) and the Main Bad Guy (whatever his name was) were horribly way over the top, but the ending cures that
The exterior of the Skull cave was totally lame, in huge contrast to the very cool interior
The whole mind control plot was extremely lame, and Flickr gonna sue somebody
(SPOILER) How the hell did the kid get in that tire?
What is up with the whole “fire that won’t burn” scene, it’s a completely realism based film why add that element?

And one mistake that the costume designer made, they would absolutely have to change it for a series, NEVER COVER YOUR LEAD ACTOR’S EYES WITH THE COSTUME!!  The full visor was big mistake, let us see his eyes.