Repo! The Genetic Opera
Repo is a rock opera set in a futuristic dystopian city where organ failure is common and Hot Topic is apparently the only place to buy clothes. Plastic surgery has become a fashion statement, and the blue glowing liquid called "Zydrate" is the new morphine.
The story revolves around a 17-year-old girl named Shilo who has been locked in her house for her whole life due to a rare blood condition. She of course escapes, albeit by accident, and gets mixed up in the politics of the local mega-corporation, GeneCo.
GeneCo is a company that sells new organs to people on a payment plan. This innovation has made GeneCo's founder, Rotti Largo, a hero. The people loved him so much that they allowed him to legalize organ repossession. In this twisted world, if a customer misses a payment, GeneCo sends out his Repo Men to claim the company's property. The result is rather messy.
Shilo's father, Nathan Wallace, tells his daughter that he's a doctor, but in reality he is the head Repo Man. He agreed to the job after the death of his wife during Shilo's birth.
"Repo" has as many excellent qualities as it does really, really bad ones. Firstly, Nathan Wallace is played by Anthony Stewart Head. Head carries this film with his intense acting and marvelous singing voice. Fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" should be falling all over themselves to buy this DVD just to hear more of his singing.
The songs themselves are generally catchy, except for Head's, which are amazing. However, the lyrics range from okay to terrible, and "Seventeen" is like an Avril Lavigne nightmare, complete with dancing stuffed animals.
Shilo is a decent character, and Alexa Vega plays her well. The film might have been better if it had focused more on Nathan, but we'll never know for sure. Paris Hilton appears in this musical as the narcissistic daughter of Rotti Largo who is addicted to plastic surgery and Zydrate. In other words, Paris Hilton plays herself, so she is pretty convincing. Her voice is harsh, but bearable, and she doesn't sing too much anyway. One of the writers, Terrance Zdunich, plays a kind of narrator character, called Graverobber, who extracts Zydrate from dead bodies and sells it to the many Zydrate junkies. Zdunich and his character don't add much to the film, and his singing and acting aren't great. But he does look good in eyeliner.
A surprising addition to the cast is Sarah Brightman, the original Christine from "The Phantom of the Opera." She plays Blind Mag, a popular singer who signed a contract with GeneCo after they cured her blindness with new eyes. Brightman sings beautifully, of course, but not a lot was done with her character.
Despite the shaky writing, "Repo" does a fine job of inserting its gruesome humor in between the serious, sometimes over-the-top emotional moments. This humor often involves a considerable and pretty unnecessary amount of blood and gore, which is bound to turn off a good amount of viewers.
The visuals are pretty ridiculous. The whole movie seems to somehow take place in one night, and every scene is dark. The costumes and makeup give away the creators' desire to make "Repo" the next "Rocky Horror Picture Show," with too much makeup and outfits that must have come from the dumpster outside of a Hot Topic store. The city itself is a thing of nightmares, with creepy flickering, floating TV screens advertising nothing but GeneCo, and hundreds of bodies dumped under broken-down buildings. How anyone lives in this city, or why there appears to be only one house, is not explained.
The film's end is touching (and bloody), but is unfortunately ruined by an unnecessary and terrible wrap-up song sung by Graverobber.
"Repo" has an interesting premise that does not reach its full potential as the writing falls flat. Instead, it becomes a shock film that doesn't take itself too seriously and is held up by its two or three really great actors. The best thing to be said about this musical is that it's very unusual, which makes it worth watching, assuming you can stomach the gore. But it is to be watched for its quirky features, not its actual story. Expect a compelling plot that makes you think and satisfies you to the end and you will be disappointed.