Rating: 3.5 Stars
The following review contains spoilers.
Overview:
Some 400 years ago, a group of pirates known as the Sengh Brotherhood ambushed a ship and killed all onboard. One child managed to escape and washed up on the shores of the nation of Bengalla. The tribesmen there took the child in and trained him to be a protector of justice known as the Phantom. Over centuries, the Phantom identity has been passed down from father to son, creating the sense in his enemies that he’s immortal, and earning him the nickname “the ghost who walks”. In the late 1930s, Kit Walker, the newest Phantom, is about to have his skills put to the test.
Meanwhile, in New York, a crime boss named Xander Drax has learned about some relics known as the Skulls of Touganda. If all three skulls can be found and joined together, untold power will be within his reach. A newspaper man discovers Drax’s plans, and sends his niece, Diana Palmer, to Bengalla to investigate what Drax is hoping to accomplish there. Palmer’s flight is hijacked by an all-female band of air pirates, who are employed by Drax, and taken hostage. When the Phantom learns of the kidnapping, he moves quickly to save her, which is how he learns of Drax and his intentions to unite the skulls, and naturally the Phantom vows to stand in his way.
Best Parts:
I’m a bit of a sucker for throwbacks to 1930s adventure stories like Indiana Jones or The Rocketeer or Tale Spin, and this is a pretty solid one of those. It even opens with a “for those just joining us” type of recap that quickly blazes through the Phantom’s origin, as if it all happened in previous episodes, and lets us get right into the story.
There are a lot of great action scenes and sequences here, starting off with the truck causing the old bridge to collapse, through jumping off a moving plane onto a moving horse, and finally the big brawl on the old pirate base, with all the swinging on ropes and kicking pirates into the water that you could hope for.
Treat Williams as Xander Drax is fantastic. He’s so passionate and “gee whiz, isn’t this amazing?” about everything that he seems like he could be the hero, except that he keeps, you know, killing people.
The Phantom’s base is in a giant skull and contains a massive library and a special hallway dedicated to all the previous Phantoms. That’s just a pretty cool base to have.
Worst Parts:
I don’t think Billy Zane is terrible in this role, necessarily, but I can’t say that I at any point actually like the Phantom. Considering he hasn’t been the Phantom for very long, he’s very cocky and smug. He seems to have no real weaknesses or shortcomings to overcome. He’s always smirking a little. Eh.
I really like Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sala, the head of the air pirates, but her change of heart towards the end of the movie is a bit out of nowhere. As first introduced, she comes across as quite cruel and evil, and then a mild lecture from Diana Palmer (“Why are you so mean?”) is apparently all she needed to switch sides and join the good guys.
There’s some bit of spark or pizazz that’s missing here. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s the certain something that lifts a movie like this from good to great.
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