Repo! the Genetic Opera!: Review By Vamp

When this movie first came out, I have to be honest, I didn't give a rat's ass about it. I thought it was some weird opera that I wouldn't get, so I didn't even bother to look at trailers or anything to do with the movie. The poster for it, the one with Luigi Largo on it, and the orange background, was not very impressive, either. I regret this lack of interest for the movie greatly. I finally heard enough about it, and saw an advertisement on here after the "SAW V" one finished for it, and finally, curiosity peaked, and I had to check it out. I went and watched the trailer, and lo and behold! I was amazed by it. I cannot believe I passed up a musical of that errant awesomeness. The next thing I did, was log on to my Mom and I's NetFlix account, and add it to my list. Currently, Mom's movies were in (We switch back and forth between the NetFlix movies. She gets three, then the next time some come, I get three, and so on and so forth), but I was appalled, disappointed, and sad to see that it had "Very Long Wait" printed next to it. Meant I was going to have to wait FOREVER to get a copy... So I went on with my life, and watched another trailer for it, and one or two clips, to sedate me. I went back the next day, and it was at "Short Wait" the day after that, it said "Right Now," which meant that if I added it to the top of my list, I could get it immediately. So I did, and waited for the mail to hurry the f*ck up and bring it. After FINALLY getting the damn thing and watching it, I am convinced that this is one of the best musicals that I have ever seen. However, the first thing I want to warn you about with this review, is that, it may be an incredible and amazing musical/movie, but it is NOT for everyone. So now that you've been warned, my review can commence.

The director of this movie is Darren Lynn Bousman, who was also the director of "SAW II," "SAW III," and "SAW IV," three of the five "SAW" movies that are currently out. His visions for movies are dark and creepy, and since he was the director of three of the five "SAW" movies, I was convinced that I'd have absolutely no issue with his visions for this movie. After having seen it, I've found that I was exactly right with that assumption. His visions are so very dark, and creepy, that they really work out well for the things he tries to convey in his films. He was definitely a great choice by the producers. He uses strange lighting techniques, and some pretty trippy camera angles, but it works out great in this movie because it just makes the movie so INTERESTING to watch! He really does amazing with this film, and the more and more I watch it, the more and more I realize how much I absolutely LOVE this movie. The writers of this movie are pretty simple. There are two of them, but they both are VERY involved in it. Darren Smith, wrote the screenplay for the movie, as well as the play, and not only does he do writing, but he can be seen in a role in the movie as the GeneCo band leader at the Genetic Opera near the end of the movie. Terrance Zdunich is also very big in the movie. He wrote the screenplay and play along with Darren Smith, and he also stars in this movie as the Graverobber. These writers both create a vivid story, that is truly an original and awesome concept, and it is executed perfectly. They've put together awesome scenes and stories to go with the movie, and at the same time they make it into a futuristic sort of movie, and for me to love a futuristic sort of movie, that means they did a great job. The director and his writers work together perfectly and create an awesome musical, that will be remembered by audiences for a VERY long time, I'm sure.

This movie's visuals are some of the most awesome, stunning, and overall AMAZING visuals that I've ever seen in a movie. They nearly match the awesome visuals of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and if you know me, then you'll know how much of a compliment that is, since "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is my all time favorite movie EVER. Anyway, this movie has so many awesome visuals, it's hard to know where to begin. I guess the first thing that I want to mention is the overall FEEL of the whole movie. It's very dark, and it seems like it's a post-apocalyptic thing, but in reality, it's a post-epidemic movie, and the whole feel of it all is one of survival. It's very dark, but dark is good for me, and everyone's into the whole gothic look and feel... It's just AWESOME to behold the whole thing. One of the main visuals that I want to mention is the clothes that everyone wears, there are some pretty awesome clothing choices, especially by Blind Mag. The Repo Man's suit looks awesome, and so does Pavi's face. It all works together very good for the whole film. Another awesome visual, and probably my FAVORITE visual aspect of the entire movie, is Blind Mag's eyes. They're VERY awesome-looking, and have the ability to display holographic images of anything that she remembers. It's very awesome, and something that you REALLY need to see for yourself. I don't know why, exactly, but that was an awesome part in the whole movie for me. Then of course we've got the blood... Can't have a storyline like this one's got without having tons and tons of blood, can you? The blood amount in this IS a high one, yes, BUT! It's also needed, since the type of work that the Repo Man does, is NOT exactly repressive, or bloodless. This movie's visuals, as I said, are absolutely STUNNING, and definitely one of the MANY reasons to watch this movie.

This movie's storyline is one of the most original, interesting, and overall awesome ones that I've ever run into in my career of watching movies (Which, I must tell you, is about sixteen years long), and it's one of my new absolute favorite movies. Now, sometimes a musical can have a really crappy story to it, but most of the time, I've found that musicals have some of the most intriguing and awesome storylines compared to most movies that have come out lately. They're intriguing because they utilize song and dance, and enrapt the audience in what is some very different, yet awesome numbers, and it keeps the audience seated. In most cases. This one does this and MORE. It's dark style and tone, as well as it's strange and enticing characters, are only doubled by the fact that the musical numbers are interesting, different, unique, and tantalizing all wrapped into one. Anyway, like I said, this is quite the unique story, and it's one that will catch your interest, and KEEP it throughout the entire movie. In the future, organ failures become an epidemic. However, a company arises that solves the problem by creating synthetic organs, and payment plans. However, if you do not make your payment on time, the repo man is sent after you, without warning, to reclaim the company's property. At the same time, in this unholy realm, a little girl struggles to find a cure for her blood disease, and a tyrant plots evil revenge on one man and everything he loves for something that hapenned almost two decades prior to the events of this story. It's an awesome storyline, and the songs are executed perfectly for everything in the movie. At first in this movie, I was like "What the hell," but the more and more I watched it, the more and more impressed I became, then at the end my reaction changed from "What the hell," to "That was F*CKING AMAZING!" This truly had an awesome storyline.

Alexa Vega rounds up the main character of our cast, and you may recognize her from the movies "Spy Kids," "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams," and "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over," where, in all three, she played Carmen Cortez, and she was also in the movie "Sleepover," where she played Julie Corky, stars in this movie as the little girl, Shilo Wallace. Shilo Wallace is the daughter of Nathan Wallace. All her life, Shilo has been kept hostage in her own home, but she's never really cared because she thought it was normal. At the same time, she's taken medicine for her entire life. Why, you ask? Because she's gotten a rare blood disease from her Mother, and it causes her to be VERY fragile. However, she has no fears to be.... well.... fearing.... because her father, who is a brilliant doctor, is putting together a cure for her, that will hopefully get rid of her disease for good. Shilo, however much she misses her mother, is mad at her mother for giving her this disease, and she's also tired of being kept locked up in the house. However, that doesn't stop her from sneaking out all the time. One of Shilo's favorite things, and her only hobby, pretty much, is bug collecting. That's where we find her at the beginning of this movie. She is in her mother's tomb, sighting for what I can only speculate to be a very rare bug. She goes to catch it, but to do this, she has to leave the indoors, which is EXACTLY what her father told her NOT to do. As she is in a graveyard, collecting the bug, she runs into a graverobber, who gets her into big trouble with the authorities. Graverobbing is a crime punishable by death on sight. She sees the Graverobber robbing a grave, and then he shouts, and gets the authorities' attention, and they're after them. She almost escapes, but they catch her, and that's when her medication alert goes off, and she passes out. She awakes to find herself back in her bed, safe and sound. Her father said that she only forgot to take her medicine, and had passed out. From here on, strange things happen. Rotti Largo gives her a call, and invites her to meet him, and from there, he takes her to the opera, and she meets Blind Mag, a singing superstar whom Shilo loves. She soon starts to wonder things as Mag comes to her home and reveals something big that had been kept from Shilo for a long time. Shilo's world is thrust into one of confusion and hidden secret, and the peace that her father desperately struggled to maintain is instantly shattered. Alexa Vega does amazingly at this role, and she really pounds every detail down perfectly. She has definitely taken her name out of those kiddie movies (Which, in the case of "Spy Kids," I DID like, don't get me wrong), and into the big leagues with this movie. Her singing voice is actually VERY good. It's got a Joan Jett feel to it. At least, that's what I think whenever I hear her sing in the movie. It works really well for the character. She also gets every other aspect of Shilo Wallace down very well. Her emotions, feelings, worries, cautiousness, as well as her curiosity, and it all molds so well with her. She really does great with everything. Alexa Vega was DEFINITELY a great casting choice for this role.

Anthony Stewart Head, known for roles in many different thing, like having a cameo as the man who comes up to Sweeney after he wins the shaving contest in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," or in shows such as "Totally Doctor Who," where he plays Baltazar, and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," where he plays Rupert Giles, and he even plays the voice of Ponsonby in "Destroy All Humans! 2," the very popular videogame sequel to "Destroy All Humans!," stars in this movie as our villain/hero, Nathan Wallace. Nathan Wallace is a father with a dark secret that he can never let his daughter know about. You see, Nathan is a Repo Man, who was tricked into working for Rotti Largo and GeneCo, but he doesn't mind the work because he is a doctor, and he does his job well, knowing EXACTLY where to cut and everything needed in the job. Not only is Nathan a Repo Man, but he is also a doctor, and he devotes all of his spare time to finding the cure for Shilo's blood disease. He is very protective of Shilo, and doesn't even ALLOW her to leave the house without wearing a gas mask. Nathan Wallace became a Repo Man because of his late wife, Marni. Nathan and Marni were incredibly happy together, and it never occurred to them that they had to worry about Marni's ex, Rotti, so they went on living happily, and Marni even got pregnant. However, one day Marni got incredibly sick, and it looked like all was going to fail. Nathan THOUGHT that he had found the cure to her disease, only to give it to her, and have it poison her further. With time running out, Nathan ran down to his basement with Marni, and cut her open to save Shilo. Rotti showed up, however, and in order to keep this out of the press, and NOT put Nathan away for murder, he enlisted him as a Repo man, and agreed to keep the Repo Man status from Shilo as she grew up. Now Nathan serves most of his time trying to cure her. However, he can sense that something is going on with Shilo, and it's changing her, making her into a teen who doesn't listen, and acts out a lot. Nathan begins to sense that something is seriously wrong, though, and he heads out to MAKE it right, and return all the peace he worked at making to normal. Anthony Stewart Head does an amazing job as this character. He does great at changing face instantaneously for the character, and make the dual life work WONDERFULLY. He gets down all of the Repo Man/Nathan's characteristics perfectly, too. He gets all the emotions, the worries, the bloodlust, the carnage-love, and the overprotectiveness down PERFECTLY, and really flies with the character. Not to mention the fact that he has an AWESOME voice. His a VERY Rock and Rollish voice, which works VERY good for the character, and makes his song incredibly entertaining, and fun to listen to and watch him perform. Anthony Stewart Head was DEFINITELY another great casting choice for this movie.

Paul Sorvino, a name that I'm familiar with, but an actor that I'm NOT familiar with, but has starred in many movies, usually as a mafioso-type gangster, from what my Dad tells me, stars in this movie as our villain, who is also sort of a mafioso guy, Rotti Largo. Rotti Largo is considered a savior by many people in this world. He rose up while the organ epidemic spread, and created GeneCo, a company specializing in the manufacturing of actual, working, synthetic organs for the people who needed it. For those who could not afford to pay for these GeneCo engineered part, Rotti offered payment plans, so that the people could live. As this was all going on, the evil Rotti showed, but still, it didn't show to the people because they were so thankful to him for saving his life. The evil showed itself in Rotti's proposed act, which passed, legalizing Organ Repossessions. Rotti was on top of the world, and even had a woman engaged to be his wife. Her name was Marni, and he thought that nothing could break the two apart. At least, that was, until Marni met Nathan Wallace, and broke of the wedding and the relationship from Rotti, and got married to Nathan. However, Marni, while pregnant, got impeccably sick, and Rotti saw a chance to get even with Nathan Wallace for stealing Marni from him. As Nathan finds the cure, Rotti, discreetly, poisons it, and when Nathan goes to give the cure to Marni, it kills her, but not before Shilo is born. Now, Rotti has a terminal disease, one that not even the man who cured the world can stop, and so he's got the issue of finding out WHO to leave his vast company to. His children, Pavi, Luigi, and Amber, worthless miscreants in his eyes, and unworthy to take over GeneCo, but he sees a way to get revenge on Nathan himself, even though he's already made him a Repo Man, so that he could keep the secret away from Shilo, and raise her in peace. He's going to give Shilo GeneCo, but only if she does something for him, first. Paul Sorvino is AMAZING in this role. I've never really seen him in anything else, so I can't really compare his roles, or say that he's had much practice for this role, but I'm thinking that he HAD to have SOME sort of practice because he's just so AWESOME as a bad guy. His singing voice is VERY good as well. It's one of those old, Italian-like, operatic voices, and it lends a renaissance feeling to the numbers that he's in, and it REALLY works for the best in it. It's really cool to hear. His acting, as I said, is AMAZING. He nails down the role perfectly, playing a good bad guy, and getting the emotions, the feelings, and the worries down VERY well, as well as his ruthlessness, vileness, and evilness. Paul Sorvino was DEFINITELY yet another great casting choice for this movie.

Sarah Brightman, a VERY talented singer, whose had songs on soundtracks for things such as my favorite show, "Charmed," and movies such as "Blades of Glory," and "Wanted," as well as starring in movies such as the TV Movie, "Song & Dance," where she played Emma, "Aspects of Love," where she played Rose Vibert, and she even had a part in "Andrew Lloyd Webber's the Premiere Collection," and it is a fun fact that "Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera" was written for her especially, stars in this movie as MY favorite character, Blind Mag. Blind Mag is known far and wide as the voice of GeneCo. It's her voice that's heard in most, if not ALL of their commercials, she advertises things for them, and she also performs things at shows that GeneCo puts together, called "Genetic Operas." Mag was best friends with Marni, Nathan's wife, and Rotti's ex, and while Marni was dating Rotti, Mag was blind, but Rotti saw an opportunity for something, and so he gave her retina surgery, and cured her of her blindness. However, the contract that Mag had signed, bound her to Rotti and GeneCo forever. She could not leave, or her eyes would be forfeit. Now, as the movie goes on, Mag decided that she was sick of serving as GeneCo's leading lady, and is giving her farewell performance, loss of eyes or not. She's come to terms with the fact that she will not be able to see anymore. However, not before Rotti brings someone to meet her, that she had thought was dead. He brings her Shilo Wallace, the daughter of her best friend, Marni. Nathan Wallace had told Mag that Shilo was dead, and now that Mag knew she was alive, she was stunned. She had promised Marni that she would be a major part of Shilo's life when she was born. You see, Marni made Mag Shilo's godmother. As Mag tries to reach out to Marni, she realizes that Nathan has kept her locked up in the house since she was born, forbidding her access to the outside world. She tries to reason with Nathan to no avail, and now she must travel to her final performance at the Genetic Opera. She is constantly hounded by Amber Sweet, Rotti's daughter, along the way, but that is only a minor nuisance. Sarah Brightman portrays Blind Mag so well, and her presence in the movie is just stunning. Every scene with her in it, had me drawn to her, and I couldn't look away. Her eyes look amazing, and so does the woman herself. She's great at acting, as well, and really NAILS the role. She gets down all of Mag's presence, her movements, her emotions, her feelings, her worries, and her astonishment at having found her goddaughter whom she thought was dead. I don't even NEED to say anything about her voice because she's a famous singer, and as such, we all know she has a beautiful voice. Her voice is a soprano, and it's VERY operatic, which really works for the character. Sarah Brightman was DEFINITELY ANOTHER great casting choice for this movie.

This part of the review is switched up a bit from what I normally do in reviews, due to these characters being small, but still VERY important to the plot of the movie. Rotti Largo has three kids: Amber Sweet (Played by Paris Hilton of "House of Wax" fame), Luigi Largo (Played by Bill Moseley of "The Devil's Rejects" fame), and Pavi Largo (Played by Nivek Ogre of "Skinny Puppy" fame). These three are quite the embarrassment to Rotti throughout the entire movie. Amber Sweet is addicted to surgery, like everyone else in this twisted world. Her appearance is constantly changing, and so Rotti must front all the money for all of her operations. She is also addicted to street Zydrate (The drug created by GeneCo, which is an immediate-acting painkiller that preps for surgery. Graverobbers rob graves now so that they can get a cheap version of Zydrate from the body, and sell it on the streets), and she's even the mind behind the Zydrate Support Network (Which is kind of like AA meetings). Not only THIS, but Amber is also obsessed with getting Mag's position at the Genetic Operas since she's leaving. Amber HATES Mag, and is constantly causing trouble for her and Rotti. Luigi has a terrible temper, and I mean this is worse than normal. He is constantly killing people for the smallest things which set him off sometimes, like getting bad-tasting coffee. It's constantly a pain for Rotti to pay of Luigi's arresting officers. Pavi Largo is a narcissistic man, who is OBSESSED with his face, and nothing else. He is constantly stealing other people's faces (Weird sounding, I know, but watch the movie and you'll know what I mean). Since he is constantly stealing faces, it means he's constantly killing people for them, and so, like Luigi, Rotti must cover up Pavi's murders. None of these children are fit to take over Rotti's company, but none of them know what Rotti is planning. They're constantly fighting over who will be running things once he dies, and it gets in everyone's way. Another character, that ties into this story, is the Graverobber (Played by Terrance Zdunich, the writer of the movie). The Graverobber is pretty much the story's narrator. He also has a small part IN the movie itself. He's like a drug dealer, since he's the one that deals the rip off Zydrate on the streets. He also interferes in Shilo's world, and nearly has her killed by the authorities. He's a creepy looking guy, but since he's the narrator, he's not good or bad. All of the actors playing these minor, but IMPORTANT, characters do a great job at what they do, and really make each of their respective characters POP. They give them all the personality treatments that are needed for each, and yeah, Paris Hilton fits into these categories (Even though the character she is playing is not much different from herself. Watch the movie, you'll understand what I mean). They all had GREAT singing voices, too. Ogre has a high tenor voice, Luigi's is kind of a rock and rollish tenor, Amber's is like you'd expect, poppy and such, and the Graverobber has a very metal-like voice that is awesome to hear. They all do great as their characters, making each respective one unique, and awesome. They were ALL DEFINITELY MORE great casting choices for the movie, which is something that this movie was good at it, it seems.

All in all, this was a great movie, that many will love and respect as an EXCELLENT edition to musical movies. However, as I said earlier on, this is NOT a movie for everyone, it's one of those ones that's amazing, but doesn't fit everyone's tastes. The director of this movie has had a great career in horror/gore/slash-em-up films, and he does equally great with this movie. His visions are dark, and spooky, and really flow well with everything, and make it an awesome film for those of us who enjoy the gothic styles shown in movies. The writers do equally good with their jobs. They create a unique and original story, which is something we don't see a lot of these days, and they create something awesome with it, too. The visuals of this movie are VERY exciting. There's so many things in it, that the visuals are needed for awesomeness. It's dark, dank, scary, and yet at the same time, it's unique, awesome, and overall AMAZING. Just perfect with the visuals (Especiall Mag's eyes). The storyline of this story, as I've already said, is INCREDIBLY unique, and delivers an awesome one for audiences to follow. It's just so fun, and different. A shocker one might say. One might also compare this movie to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (Which I have NOT seen yet, but I want to). The storyline REALLY does a great job of keeping the audience enrapt with the movie. The acting in this movie ties everything together perfectly. Every actor and actress in this movie (Yes, including Paris Hilton) delivers a performance that is COMPLETELY convincing, COMPLETELY believable, and COMPLETELY realistic (As realistic as it gets for the storyline and everything, at least), and they also make them characters that you can REALLY feel for, and EVEN RELATE TO, on variously different levels. So trust me, it's not for EVERYONE, but see the movie, and give it a chance. It's absolutely amazing.