Review of Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) by Doctor S — 18 Jul 2010

A disappointment: needed to be much better or much worse to really enjoy. Instead we get a Sin City/Rocky Horror hybrid filled with mostly unmemorable industrial rock songs. The employ of comic panels are well-incorporated to tell backstory quickly, but that time saved could have been so much better used in the main movie instead of repeating the same themes ("Dad, I can take care of myself!" "No, you're sick, I must protect you!") The washed-out colors turn the future into a dull decaying urban landscape instead of the scary urban chaos it was meant to be, and they mostly waste the neat, intimidating costume & presence of the Repo Man.

Alexa Vega has a couple good musical numbers (Joan Jett-inspired 'Seventeen' sticks out), Paul Sorvino casts his operatic tenor impressively, but Sarah Brightman delivers the one solitary show-stopping aria. Some of the songs have downright poor rhyming structure and are sonically grating, which makes it doubly difficult to follow dialogue when your ears are constantly assaulted by overbearing loudness. An ambitious opportunity mostly misfired.