Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(2008)

Anyone ever wonder what Alexa Vega got into after Spy Kids? Me neither but here we are. Ironically the thing that caught my attention for Spy Kids is the same thing that caught my attention for Repo! The Genetic Opera. Ten points if you involuntarily shouted “The Music!”. The music for Spy Kids is mind blowing but we’ll save that for a different non-review.

Yes, songs from Repo!’s soundtrack started coming through a station I had set up on Pandora and I liked them a lot! Detecting a certain arc between these songs made me curious as to what they were from. Lo and behold, the songs came from an opera of sorts; The Genetic Opera, in fact.. Fifty-six lyrical songs plus 14 instrumental. There is hardly a word throughout this production that is not sung.

 But what is a Genetic Opera? Well, I’ll tell you! I don’t know. I know the plot has much to do with a congenital disease passed onto a daughter who sings “I’m infected by your genetics.” I know almost every character seems to be related somehow. Maybe that’s why it’s a Genetic Opera.

The premise of the story involves a disease that caused organ failure and wiped out most of the human race. A huge corporation was able to create new healthy organs but they are on lease to the people who use them. When they can no longer pay the bills, that’s when the repo man comes a-knocking, ready to repossess that spleen you’ve been using. Did I mention Repo! is a horror Opera?

Personally, I never found it beyond my own threshold for horror. Most of it was kind of silly and fun in a Halloweeny but visceral kind of way. Although not for the squeamish nor for kids. Hocus Pocus this was not. Bette Midler doesn’t come out and sing a mischievous version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “I Put a Spell on You”.

Okay, there were a couple instances that were especially gratuitous gore-wise and I didn’t care for the sight of it but I’m not going to need therapy or anything. It seemed pretty fake. Also there’s some sensuality from the back-up singers on par with something like the musical Chicago. It was a bit extra but whatevs. It’s no worse than Michelangelo’s naughty pictures he drew on the church ceiling.

Honestly, I think the lack of a super-inflated budget lent well to the fun campiness of some of the more gory gags. It was kind of interesting to see the ingenuity achieved within the limitations they clearly had on this production. I might assume they brought their props right from the stage production straight to the film. Kudos to them for saving a buck if that’s what they did. If the effects had been more believable, I personally would have been more grossed out than entertained. That being said, curiosity abated, I think I prefer just listening to the soundtrack.

This is not just a bunch of songs you might hear from a popular band strung together to make an opera either. The people responsible for the lyrics clearly took a page from Broadway musicals like The Music Man or Hello Dolly! but adapted it to this macabre storyline and gave it a gothic metal edge.

I dare you to say “Zydrate comes in a little glass vial..” and see how many people around you chime in with “…a little glass vial?” like the townsfolk in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast all singing “Bon Jour!” to each other. That’s how you’ll know who’s seen this.

Each character seemed to have a rather complicated backstory and the film took its time to stop and explain it. It was done in song with interesting visuals but after about the fifth one of these interludes it got a bit hard to follow. What is this Pirates of Caribbean? Everyone gets a storyline? Simplify, Maaaaaaan! But I suppose this fits with the standard opera modus operandi.

Paul Sorvino plays Rotti Largo, father of the Largo family and CEO of GeneCo, providing a coincidental link to my recent foray into Romeo and Juliet stories. Sorvino played Fulgencio Capulet (Juliet’s father) in Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996).

Paris Hilton plays Amber Sweet, Rotti Largo’s daughter. She lost a lot of face for this part. That’s not a metaphor. Also she lost a lot of face for this part, having been awarded a Golden Raspberry for worst supporting actress. That alone makes this whole production worth the watch. Personally, I thought she was fine.

Alexa Vega was fine too. I don’t mean to razz her at all for her part in spy kids, stupid as those movies are. She did some songs on the Soy Kids soundtracks that were pretty dang good actually… Haha! I keep typing Soy Kids. That’d be an interesting movie.

Soooooooooyyyyy kiiiiiiiiids are gonna save the wooooooorld!