Review of Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) by Brett W — 31 Aug 2012

Visually this movie is pretty cool, with the exception of when the budget doesn't match the ambition. And it certainly IS ambitious. Unfortunately, as a whole, it's rather underwhelming... and for one simple reason (well, besides the terrible comic-book style exposition sections); the music is god awful. The main problem here is that they didn't follow any coherent musical or even operatic rules. They sing the entire story, like an opera, but operas don't attempt to cram conversation, exposition and emotional soliliquy into one awkward song after another. Actual operas keep the vowel usage to a minimum. Actual rock operas (and musicals in general) revolve around songs that act as emotional outbursts, with spoken dialogue filling in the gaps between. Repo's non-stop verbal assault is rarely melodically entertaining and only functions to keep the pacing at a nauseatingly heightened level (and even then, they break that rule too, with occasional snippets of spoken words here and there).

My suggestion, watch it, mute it and listen to a Tom Waits album over it.