Repo! The Genetic Opera

I wrote this review in November 2008 with the intention of having it published in The Acorn if the movie ever actually came to theaters in the Agoura / Thousand Oaks / Simi Valley / Moorpark / Camarillo area. It didn't.
This is not only an old review but it's also written for a "respected" publication that actually gives a damn about sounding like you know what you're talking about. Which is why it doesn't sound much like it was written by me. I assure you it was.
The point is, Repo Men, a direct ripoff of Repo! The Genetic Opera, is going to be released next week. I'm protecting my turf in the only way I know how.
Testify!

Repo! The Genetic Opera is a film ten years in the making, growing from a two-man show to a full-cast stage play before finding its way onto celluloid.
In the near future, an epidemic of organ failures causes mass chaos and death until GeneCo, a company specializing in genetically engineered organ transplants, arrives to save the world. The company starts a trend, turning transplants into fashion statements, and GeneCo's owner, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), pushes a bill through congress legalizing organ reposessions.
The movie opens with Rotti receiving news that he is dying. Feeling his children aren't worthy of inheriting his company, Rotti looks for a new heir.
Meanwhile, seventeen year old Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega) is infected with the blood disease that killed her mother and is longing for the outside world, having spent her life in her bedroom. Her father Nathan (Anthony Stewart Head) is a doctor who works for GeneCo and, unable to bear the idea of losing Shilo the way he lost his wife, has kept his daughter locked away.
The film takes place in one night, the night of GeneCo's Genetic Opera, a televised event promoting the company, featuring the final performance of superstar "Voice Of GeneCo" Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman, in her film debut).
Like most musicals, act one consists mainly of character introductions and plot exposition. Relationships are defined. The first act ends with foreshadowing of dramatic events to come At The Opera Tonight.
Act two is shorter and darker than act one, starting with an enthusiastic bang, with co-writer Darren Smith making a cameo as the opera's conductor, dancing down the aisle and demanding everybody "get down, stand up and testify!" However, it isn't long until the plot goes spiraling into despair. Secrets are revealed and people die.
As the title suggests, the film is a rock opera and viewers may be thrown by all the dialogue being sung. Backstories, which would have made the movie quite long if explained in song form, are told via comic book panels drawn by co-writer Terrance Zdunich, who also plays Graverobber.
And, as the movie's tagline says, this is "Not Your Parents' Opera." While it's not exactly a horror film it does contain several scenes of organ reposession, making the film gruesome enough to catch the attention of magazines such as Rue Morgue, Fangoria and GoreZone. The gore, however, is over the top, cartoonish and mainly played for laughs, which could put off some audience members. I found it quite funny; Thankless Job in particular is hilarious if your sense of humor is dark enough.
Director Darren Lynn Bousman's visuals are incredible, making the audience feel less like they're watching a movie and more as though they've been plunked in the middle of a different world and are watching the characters' lives happen around them.
The entire ensemble are perfectly cast and, while Repo! is essentially a movie about Nathan, Shilo and Rotti, the minor characters steal the show. Brightman is stunning as Blind Mag, and comic relief is provided by Rotti's sons: the face-stealing womanizer Pavi (played by Skinny Puppy frontman Nivek Ogre) and murderous Luigi (Bill Moseley). Paris Hilton plays Rotti's surgery-addicted daughter Amber Sweet and she impressed me enough to win my respect, able to convey emotions through occasionally heavy prothstetics. The Graverobber is a small but pivotal narrator role who has become iconic and a bit of a sex symbol among the movie's devoted fanbase.
Repo! The Genetic Opera is difficult to describe because, to my knowledge, there has never been another movie like it. It's a film made for moviegoers who want to see something they've never seen before.
I love it immensely.

End of line.
-Sally