The Phantom has all the ingredients of a true pulp classic: Oriental pirates, mysterious native tribes, a plucky heroine, a quest for supernatural artifacts, feckless treasure hunters, sexy sky pirates (led by Catherine Zeta Jones), lost islands, corrupt city officials and a costumed comic book hero.
The year is 1938 and evil American business tycoon Xander Drax (Treat Williams) will do anything he can to lay his hands on the three Skulls of Touganda, which when brought together can generate an unstoppable energy force, and it's up to "the Ghost That Walks" aka The Phantom (Billy Zane) to ride out of his cave lair on the island of Bengalla and stop him.
Stylistically heavily influenced by the Indiana Jones movies of the '80s, The Phantom is harmless hokum but not without some moments of extreme silliness - such as why Kit Walker (Zane) can enter an otherwise empty room and then The Phantom appears and no one realises they are one and the same person?
And what would have happened if the first two magical skulls had been brought together in a room without a convenient giant map on the wall? How would they have indicated the location of final skull then?
Some of the film's special effects (for instance, the view out of Drax's office window is clearly a painting and not a very good one), and stunts, are rather dated and let's be honest: The Phantom's purple body suit and domino mask may work in the comics, but look rather suspect in the flesh.
The climatic duel between The Phantom's magic ring and the power of the skulls, as wielded by Drax, pushes the corny cheese factor just a bit too far and the whole story is probably too simplistic for modern audiences, but the film still manages to evoke the feeling of the pulp era Saturday morning serials.