Thanks for your (invaluable) 2-cents, AAM! I already love Mozart but haven’t paid any heed to his opera.
I think that Magic Flute is a perfect opera for people who don't particularly care for opera. Mozart's music is completely accessible to just about everybody, and it has something for everyone: the romantic/lyric tenor Tamino, the lovely lyric soprano Pamina, comic baritone Papageno and his elusive wife Papagena, and more comic sparring among the Three Ladies. On opposite ends, you have the deepest bass you will hear this side of Russian in Sarastro, wandering down around low F, and the incredible coloratura fireworks of the Queen of the Night who is up in the clouds with a couple of F6s in "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen".
Even though the Ingmar Bergman film has severe cuts in the music and changes some minor plot points around, it's worth owning simply because nobody else has come close to filming this opera the way it deserves to be filmed. I'm amazed that he found such high quality singers to sing it in Swedish - the Queen of the Night, Birgit Nordin, will stand comparison with the greats like Serra and Damrau, and I love the Papageno, who is simply perfect.
I haven't seen the recent Kenneth Branagh version, so I can't say much about it. The clips I've seen look interesting, though the habit some directors have of putting classic operas into modern dress leaves me cold. There's a French version rolling around that puts everybody back into the ancient Egyptian dress that Mozart intended. The whole thing is vaguely Masonic, but I've never let that bother me. :-)