REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA

Repo! The Genetic Opera Movie Review

Set in the year 2056, the world has gone through an epidemic of organ failures. One company, GeneCo, has created a program of financed organ transplants, but when the buyer cannot pay, they face the wrath of the repo man.

Not this one

One thing you should know right off the bat is that this, as the title implies, is indeed a musical first and foremost, as practically every line in the film is sang, not spoken. But my fellow horror fans, fear not--there is plenty of gore to enjoy here. This is just a really, really cool film. First off, the idea of combining horror and science fiction with musical is pretty uncommon--yes, I know Phantom of the Opera does the same thing, but this film takes a very different approach. Repo! combines the desperate futuristic feel of Blade Runner with the gore of Saw (same producers and Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed a few of the Saw sequels, directs this one), cool comic strip style animation and the music of rock meets opera...and the formula is fantastic. The cast is strong in this film--Paul Sorvino of Goodfellas fame is the lead villain Rotti Largo, and I would have never suspected he could pull off such a character. Multi-lingual singer Sarah Brightman (a veteran stage performer of the aforementioned  Phantom of the Opera) delivers the best and most interesting performance as Bling Mag, the "rock star" of GeneCo.

Mag

The story revolves around a couple things: seventeen year old Shilo Wallace (Alexa PenaVega) is the ailing daughter of the Repo Man (played wonderfully by Anthony Head), a man working for Rotti after stealing Rotti's girl, Shilo's mother, and accidentally killing her via poison Rotti slipped him. The other story of note is that Rotti is dying, and his three children are all vying to inherit the company--I am fairly certain there has never been a more eclectic cast of siblings in film history than...

Paris Hilton...

Bill Moseley...

and Ogre of Skinny Puppy.

Believe it or not, this combination works really well, and (it truly pains me to admit this) Hilton actually does a pretty good job. Honestly, there isn't a whole lot that misses in this movie. The pacing slows down somewhat in the middle of the film, and a few of the songs are really uninteresting, but the biggest fault in this movie is the attempt at comedy. Granted, the more clever points hit, but there is some that just falls flat. The CGI leaves a little to be desired at times as well--all that said, this is still a really wonderful film. Uniqueness is something that is hard to come by in the world of film these days, but Repo! delivers just that. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 8 





Repo! The Genetic Opera Movie Trailer