5,100th Post Celebration: Repo- The Genetic Opera

Well, it is another Milestone number.
What should I do for it?

How about something different- a Musical?  Maybe one that has a Cult following and was not a hit.

This is Repo- The Genetic Opera, a 2008 Film which doesn't tick many boxes for me personally.  

I don't *hate* Musicals, but the structure confounds me.  

I don't hate Darren Lynn Bousman or his work, but I'm not going to watch a Saw Film anytime soon.

Why not go outside of my comfort zone then?  Because it is just that, comfortable?
Well, too bad!  Let's check out this thing!

The Plot is all sorts of bonkers, involving a massive corporation skirting the law, buying their way into make crime legal and using human beings as tools that they can dispose when they see no worth in them.

Such a Science Fiction Plot!

Will I learn to love a bizarre, gory Musical?  Let's find out...

The Film takes place in a dystopian future where every place looks like the neon green streets of Gotham City from Batman Forever.

Everyone out there dresses like a combination of The Lost Boys or the cast of Cats.

GeneCo (who spent 10 seconds coming up with that name) makes a power play.  They buy their way to allow themselves to copyright/patent new organs and then repo them if payment isn't made.

Paul Sorvino is the Boss and has three kids (or more?) vying for the spot when he dies.

The Repo Men are allowed to catch you and cut out the organs.  These Repo Men are not be confused with the Leads from the 2010 Film Repo Men (which was somehow being written in 2007 based on a Novel from 2009?).

Nor should they be confused with Repo Man...or Repo Chick.

Our Lead- although we seem to have about 7- is Shilo.

Her Dad is a Doctor and she has to stay inside due to her rare blood disorder.

Like everyone, she sings about it.

Plot Twist- Dad is actually a Repo Man!

The Wife died while giving birth when he tried to cure her of her disorder and he was blackmailed by Sorvino into working for him.

I have to imagine this was fun for Mr. Head after dealing with all of the teenagers on Buffy for so long!

The Film also features an omniscient Narrator who talks directly to the Audience.

I think you're required by law to have one in a thing like this.

Confusingly, he also interacts with the Leads in a key way...so is he just Deadpool seeing through the structure of the Film itself?!?

The whole thing, of course, builds up to the titular Opera.

All of the Sub-Plots- killer Dad, evil Dad, sick girl, lady with holographic eyes- all come together in a bloody spectacle.

Curiously, almost nothing is actually resolved and many bad guys walk away, so this is either very nihilistic or they expected to make a bunch of Sequels.  

The End.

This one didn't do it for me, but I'm certainly not here to take this away from the fans.

The Film was hard to follow for me, with the heavy exposition mixed with Comic Book Panels, random people popping up, the singing and the Narrator.

They spent $8 million on this one and it didn't go into this part it seems.
It seems to have gone to all of the vinyl clothing and fake body parts for gore.

One thing is going to really decide how you feel about this- the Singing.  The performances vary.  I really liked Sorvino here- he nailed the role.  Others like Bill Moseley and Ogre aren't great.  I think it was a choice they made (as opposed to a lack of talent).

With all of the stop-start storytelling for Songs, it got hard to tell how much was really happening.  I joked on Twitter that I was waiting for the Plot to start about an hour in.

There is one, but many Plot Points overlap.  For instance, one lady dies from being poisoned and a different one was also being poisoned.  Getting both reveals in the Finale muddles things a bit, no?

All in all, I totally get why some people are *really* into this one.  I'm not here to tell you to hate it or anything.

For me, I just didn't really connect with the whole thing.  To be fair, the last Opera I watched was Dario Argento's.  Take us away, Dystopian Future Guy who looks like Present Day Vince McMahon.

A Film that absolutely has fans and I take nothing away from that.  I just never got 'hooked' by the whole thing.