Twilight Makes the Best Fanwank Ever via io9

Maybe the problem is that I came in with my hopes too high. The trailer for Repo! is more exciting than some action movies in their entirety (I’m looking at you, Blade Trinity), and its soundtrack is a blood-pumping mix of metal, opera, and rock, with some light techno thrown in for flavor. Listening to the soundtrack is what one imagines Andrew Lloyd Weber would sound like on LSD.

The premise of the film, for those who, unlike me, didn’t spend three weeks trawling the forums for more tidbits on the November 7th release, is that in a dystopian future organ failure has become an epidemic, but salvation comes through the purchase of GeneCo’s replacement organs payed for with flexible financing plans. The problem? If you miss a payment, your organs are repossessed by a Repo Man, who usually takes your life in the process of removing the overdue organs. The film was conceived of by the guys who wrote it as a stage play, directed and produced by Darren Lynn Bousmann of Saw 2,3,4 fame, and stars Anthony Stewart Head, Alexa Vega, Paris Hilton, and Paul Sorvino. With all that going for it, what could go wrong?

Well, quite alot actually. The story is set at the beginning of the film by a series of comic panels with musical overlay that makes the viewer feel that he may have stumbled onto some performance art show by mistake. Once the intro is over, we are quickly introduced to all the major characters, and by quickly I mean within ten minutes. The plot follows that Nathan, the chief Repo Man, has a daughter that inherited a blood disease from her mother, and so is under effective house arrest. Most of the rest of the movie, therefore, is about her trying to leave the house.

That may sound overly cynical, especially given the rather excellent ending scene at the Genetic Opera, but Alexa Vega is what she is cast to be: an angsty teenager. The audience gets reminded of this multiple times, and each successive time feels a little worse. There is a song titled “Seventeen” where Shilo, the character played b Alexa Vega, acts like a punk rocker in front of her father, in what I’m guessing was a calculated attempt to show that 17-year-olds are punks. They could have cut that song and lost nothing.

The plot continues, secrets are revealed, Shilo confronts her Repo Man father as he tries to confront the villainous company that employs him (GeneCo) and generally makes life bad for everyone. I will choose to not give away the ending, as it is worth seeing in theaters if for nothing else to see Anthony Stewart Head sing. See it at a student discount of you can.

Since I brought him up, let’s talk about A.S.H. HE IS THE SINGLE GREATEST PIECE OF TALENT IN THIS FILM. Honestly, I don’t think I could have tolerated some of the scenes without him if it hadn’t been for the scenes with him. His character has more depth than the rest of the cast, and he perfectly pulls off the double personality of Repo Man and caring father to Shilo. I also do give props to Terrance Zdunich, who, besides wirting the film and drawing the albeit dicey comic intro, portrays an excellent Graverobber, and I wish there would have been more scenes between him and Anthony Head. It is possible, however, that putting both of them singing in the same scene would have made the rest of the movie look too terrible in comparison, so I understand why they’re normally a few scenes apart.

I feel like responding to some criticism I saw on another site, namely that the camera work is fuzzy and a little, well, terrible. That’s not untrue. I’m not sure why the shots came out looking so bad, but there a definitely points where it seems like the camera was a hari out of focus. I’m not sure why, but it decreases the credibility of the film. Unless they were trying to make an artistic statement the audience was not supposed to get.

That’s in a way the gist of Repo! It feels like a movie designed to polarize the audience that’s watching it, even if that audience came in expecting the second coming. It rolls more as an art piece than as entertainment, more critique on society itself than as something society is supposed to enjoy.  Half the people who see it will probably hate it, but they will mask their hate for fear of being mobbed by the die hard fans who loved every grisly second. I fall into the camp of those who were die-hard fans of the movie until they actually saw it.

Review in a paragraph:

Repo! is heavily sexual, gratuitously gory, dark almost to the point of black, and misses some of its potential. Would I watch it again? Yes. In theaters? Maybe. If I’m with other die-hard fans it could be fun, but I would not willingly go to see it again by myself. They should have cut one or two number completely, reshot the entire movie with better cameras, and figured out an intro sequence that doesn’t feel, well, arty. It was a very good movie, not exactly what I was expecting and not a shining light to lead the major studios to making more movies like it, but a good attempt at something unique. All in all, the trailer kind of blew their wad.

“Los Angeles. California-Sunset 5

Pasadena, California-Playhouse

San Francisco, California-Landmark Lumiere

Berkley, California-Elmwood Theater

New York-Angelika

Austin, Texas-Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar

Las Vegas, Nevada-Palms Casino (Brenden Theater)

Minneapolis, Minnesota-Lagoon Theater”

Please DO join the Repo! Forum, since those numbers help support the argument for a wide spread, but I’m posting the list so the average netizen can find it.

Repo! The Genetic Opera is literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Repo! is a Science Fiction Horror Rock Opera, and if that phrase alone doesn’t start your heart pounding, then I’m not sure what else I can say to convince you. Oh, well there is the fact that the male lead is played by Anthony Stewart Head, who you might recogninze from his excellent work in the Buffy-verse. Not to mention the fact that you get to see Paris Hilton look almost Goth.

Yes, that’s right. We get to see a raven-haired Hotel Princess sing her way through a production that has a trailer darker than most dark films. Other notable memorable members of the cast? Alexa Vega, who those of growing up in the right generation may remember as Carmen Cortez from Spy Kids. I always wondered what had happened to her, and it turns out she ended up playing the geneticically diseased invalid daughter of a Organ Repo Man.

Still need convincing? Check out the Repo! trailer. If the music and the cinematography don’t immediately grab you, then perhaps this musical masterpiece isn’t for you. However, if you feel you need just a little more convincing check out this scene: Zydrate Anatomy.I will confess that, being an old musical theater person myself, I am very addicited to the music. Every time I listen to the songs, I hear some new nuance that just enriches the whole experience. I encourage you to get the soundtrack and share in the moment.

So why the blog post? Besides my desire to spread the word about great things in the world of Science Fiction, we cannot be merely passive viewers of Repo! Wemight not be given the chance. The production studio releasing Repo!, Lionsgate Films, has so far said they will only be releasing the film in a handful of theaters across the country, the number rumored somewhere between four (one each in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco) and ten.

How can you help? Start by checking out the Repo! Opera Forum, and seeing if there is already a Repo! Army running in your area. If not, start one. Beyond that, buy the soundtrack. Actually BUY, in some form or another. Large soundtrack slaes show the studio that there is real interest in the film, and may prompt an expanded release. Also, find a movie theater you like, call them up, and ask them if they’ve heard of the movie. If they haven’t, tell them about it and how much interest you  have in seeing it at their theater. If they have heard of Repo!, ask them if they are showing it. If not, ask why. The more support we get for this, the better chance we have.

So, what did Bablyon AD do right? Well, French director Matthieu Kassovitz’s screen adaptation of an archetypal badass’ (Vin Diesel) quest to smuggle a girl with mysterious powers into archetypal post-apocalyptic future America is definitely not a story for anyone expecting a change to formula. By which I mean the post-apocalyptic badass formula. Since this formula is a first for this blog, let’s go over the pieces.

Post-apocalyptic future world + antihero-esque badass + world-dominating corporation (+ some other interchangeable elements, depending on style) = Kick Ass Movie

This formula has served Hollywood (and quite a few SciFi authors) well for years, and doesn’t seem to be in any great hurry to change. With that in mind, let’s see how “Babylon AD” handles the formula.

Piece one: Post-apocalyptic future world? Check. This is in fact where “Babylon AD” has some of its moments of shine, because the world it creates is believable. Kind of. I can easily see the economy degrading to the point where people are forced to buy things freshly hunted by other people (because the grocery stores are reserved for the elite and such), and where serving favors for the rich is all that’s really available for steady work, because there are parts of society like that now. The world of “Babylon AD” does have some cool future tech that serves as glitter on the sides, but other than the Big Brother complete surveillance, nothing definite. Overall, the world is real and stimulating.

Piece two: Vin Diesel. I said earlier antihero-esque, because he ends up on the side of something that is obviously good and warm and mushy, rather than being a free spirit throughout. Diesel plays a good character, though, and despite having a character name I wasn’t sure of until the end credits, he’s a convincing badass. You might say he’s always a convincing badass, and “what else is new?”, but he smiles more in this movie. That’s important. With most of his earlier roles, especially the Riddick series, he had the badass plastered over his face the entire time. The smile gives him an element of “I’m actually above all you little people” that works. Its as though he’s saying “you’re amusing, and I’m not annoyed enough to kill you yet” to everyone. Its a relief from his normality. Subtle differences are everything.

Piece three: The overlord corporation. I’m sorry, but whatever my personal beliefs, I don’t see a religious organization making any serious world power plays in the next fifty years. There’s just too much going against them. Also, religion as the bad guy is a little overplayed, so when it turns out the future-version of Christianity is trying to hunt down Vin Diesel and his ‘package’, I inwardly groaned. Seeing technological upgrades as a religion (as shown through the “we’re trying to kill you, oops we’re trying to save you” organization that saves Vin Diesel) is refreshing, and adds another bit of shine to Babylon AD.

Let’s finish up with a final quick comment about the plot. The first half was fine. Normal formula stuff, Diesel doing his thing, save the weird girl, be a badass, etc. The problem? Who is this girl, why can she stop missiles? Oh. The unborn kids have mystical powers to save her from missiles, but the mother dies in childbirth? Oh, alright then. Doesn’t Vin Diesel make a great surrogate father? End.