Review of Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) by Nikolai E — 15 Aug 2010

I'm completely certain that somewhere out there, this is somebody's favorite movie, and I understand why. It inhabits its own special niche with supreme and unwavering confidence. As an idea it's electric, and it stretches its budget to the breaking point, using every trick in the book to make a small movie look huge, and that makes it easy to overlook a flaw or two.

Unfortunately, those flaws include a cast that can't really sing and songs that aren't very good. I mean, it might work at a fringe festival or if you're already totally endeared to the thing, but in an objective sense, the writing, music and performance of the almost continuous score are shabby and amateurish.

I hate to say it too, because God bless them, they are trying, but for every half-decent song there are two abysmal ones bookending it. It's not uniformly bad, but even the standout moments aren't really up to close scrutiny.

Tons of heart, charm and confidence, but it needed a few more years of incubation. The tragedy is that of all the things 'Repo Men' ripped off, this is absolutely front and centre, and yet at the end of the day, 'Repo Men' is still simply a better movie, and there was nothing saying that had to be true.