Film Review: Repo! The Genetic Opera

Let me open this review by saying that as I made my way to the bathroom following the film, my initial description evolved from schizophrenic to ultradian bipolar manic. 

There are a lot of great things about this movie.  There are also rather a lot of negative aspects.  These dichotomies make themselves rather apparent as the focus shifts from one to the other at a rate of about twice a minute.

Now, I like a rock opera.  Tommy and The Rocky Horror Picture Show are my favorites.  Otherwise, I despise musicals, and I do not use the word lightly.  I find the lyrics horrible, the compositions rarely even passable and the pacing painful.  Repo! is a bit different in this regard, as the lyrics are only mostly horrible, the compositions are actually excellent and the pacing is so frenetic there’s a crescendo for every breath.

In the opening, and dispersed throughout as ill-advised segues are comic panels.  This confuses me, as I can find absolutely no reference to any sort of comic book relation in the history of the show, which to my knowledge began as a stage musical, The Necromerchant’s Debt.

The film exposes viewers to a post-bio-apocalyptic world that is presented with exacting precision.  With very few exceptions, the sets and backgrounds are gorgeous.  The lighting is very well-done, adding a level of visual complexity often lacking in this post-production world.  There are a few obviously cheap elements, and while these were likely intentional, I did find them distracting.

The plot is, well, expected.  I was led to understand by the website that the pivotal character was also a main character, but this proved to be rather misleading, and I found myself wanting much more of Blind Mag, and a lot less of Paris Hilton and the GraveRobber, a reasonable facsimile of whom can be found in virtually every 24hour coffee pit in America and Europe.  Paris’ face did fall off, which was a saving grace.

Ogre of Skinny Puppy did a great job in the film, his marionette posing adding a lot to his character.  Anthony Stewart Head and Paul Sorvino also presented their characters well, and used their vocalizations to good effect.

Alexa Vega, who turned out to have the main role in Shilo Wallace also did a good job with what we was given.  Unfortunately, I guess I’m just too old to empathize with a seventeen year old girl who somehow has the power to go from solitary shut-in to mistress of her universe in the time it take for her father to bleed out.

Most of the character treatments are trite, which is to be expected, and the setting is fascinating but under-developed. 

Musically, the film is off and on.  While the composition and production are top notch, I just don’t like techno very much.  Add to that lyrics that gave me lock-jaw and sometimes jarring transitions in vocalization, and you have a soundtrack that reads like a arrhythmic’s heart monitor.  This is further compounded by the fact that there are something like 55 individual songs, a chorus of slutty nurses and not one single line delivered atonally. 

I think, at the end of the day, that had this film been presented more seriously, without the insistence on music, it might well have been a major release with some real success.  The writers certainly show promise, and Director Bousman (Saw series) is one of my favorites.

All in all, it was acceptable.  I left the theatre thinking about whether I liked it or not, which at least means I didn’t totally waste my time and money.  The theme, which apparently was that individuals have the power to overcome the limitations of their genetics, may be only arguably true, but does need further popular exploration.  If only it hadn’t been couched in gore and subgenre, some of those who most need exposure might have gotten it.

And was that Shilo or Frankenfurter leaving at the end?  One still wonders.

I remain of two very different and not at all friendly minds about this film, which is why it scores 5 out of 10 points.