Halloween DCOM Review: Phantom of the Megaplex

 Spoliers ahead. I chose to start with Phantom of the Megaplex, as it's the DCOM I remember the least. I can't tell you the last time I saw this movie, or even the last time it was aired on Disney Channel. I don't think I've even seen the movie all the way through. I do remember the masked phantom being scary. 

Phantom of the Megaplex premiered in 2000. And yes, it is based on Phantom of the Opera. The movie is set in a town whose original movie theater opened in 1925, where the first movie they first played was Phantom of the Opera. Fast forward a few decades and the old cinema was knocked down and replaced by a megaplex with 26 theaters. A rumor started up that a man was trapped in the old theater as it was knocked down and his soul now haunts the megaplex. The assistant manager of the megaplex, Pete, treats the Phantom rumor as a joke until things start to go very wrong on the night of a midnight premier. 

My first qualm with the movie was that half a dozen characters were introduced within the first few minutes of the movie with their nick names flashing across the screen as voiceover Pete explains the meaning behind each nickname. Introducing three or four characters this way warrants an eye roll, but introducing 7 characters this way feels like a deck of flash cards. And none of the characters were actually referred to by their nicknames for the rest of the film. 

After all of the megaplex teenaged employees are introduced, the senior manager, Shawn, holds a meeting about the importance of the midnight premiere. I noticed all of the employees were standing up perfectly straight at attention, which is unlike most teenagers I've worked with. This happy-go-lucky work environment seemed oddly unrealistic - until senior manager Shawn said he was willing to blame any problems other employees. 

My heart hurt from the nostalgia I got from the setting of the 90s/2000s movie theater. All those neon lights and dark blue carpeting was a fun background for a movie. 

I was a little baffled at the resolution with the movie at first. After Shawn is fired for being the Phantom, a movie director offers him a partnership. I didn't want the villain of the movie to be rewarded. But then the director asked Shawn to run and get him a coffee, to my delight. Shawn will always be on a low rung of the ladder. His theatrics and mayhem did not actually get him anywhere in life. 

The movie does have some cliches, but only to play upon the theme of movie cliches. The main character has to battle a monster with a sword, there's a marriage proposal at the end and a mystery to be solved. 

The stand-out character is clearly Movie Mason, played by movie veteran Mickey Rooney.  I got chills when he said:

 "When we arrive in this world, magic is all around us. You simply have to see a baby discover a butterfly or a toddler splash in the bath for the first time. Yet, as the years pass, simple pleasures aren't quite so simple to find. Myths and legends fall away. Santa's secrets are revealed. Card tricks lose their fascination. True wonder is hard to come by. But there's always magic at the movies. Pirate ships, bicycles that fly, angels earn their wings, beautiful women marry handsome men and we all learn there's no place like home."

Overall, Phantom of the Megaplex is an entertaining movie and well worth the watch.