Who needs art when you can review things?

Well, I have been doing plenty of art. And getting paid to do it no less. The only sucky part about that is that I can't really show it off. The only thing I could realistically do is have you guys request I do caricatures of you. How cool does that sound? Tell me it is, and I might set that up.

Anyway, the real point of this journal. The other day my friends and I went to this midnight showing of Repo! The Genetic Opera in Campbell, CA, because my friend Connor was telling my main group of friends and I that it was gonna be really good, along with it being a night that some major people that're involved with it are going to be doing this "shadow casting" thing for each night. They're inherently trying to get an actual stage play going, along with a possible sequel too. But their budget is pretty...minimal, so their way of gaining morale and fans is to do these midnight showing things. This is a pretty excellent idea...for the fans of course. For newcomers like myself, well...let's just say it can be a bit alienating.

The main thing that really struck me while I was watching this thing was the audience. There was a prominent energy in the crowd that I've never experienced in a movie theatre before. These were a little more than just fans. These guys were really hardcore into this shit. And there was a big costume contest, and people reciting lines and all that goodness. In some ways it was actually pretty fun. But being a newcomer, it really distracted me from enjoying the movie in the way I normally do. For example, audience members were reciting many corny jokes through certain points of the movie really loudly (I'd elaborate, but that would spoil things). This would drive many people batshit crazy, but me? I'm apparently more patient than that.

Though of course, if the movie's amazing, than I would care less about the issue above, because I'd simply block that out. But this wasn't quite the case unfortunately. In it's defense, it SOUNDS amazing. The main story follows the repo man, who's forced to work for this organ manufacturing company in the distant future. Essentially, people buy organs from these people, but if they skip the bill, the repo man straight-up rips it the fuck out of you. Totally sweet.

And the awesome part is that any part involving this character is totally sweet. He's played by Anthony Stewart Head, who's apparently on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and did a bunch of other things. He was rather badass. He gutted the shit out of people, and he was the best singer of the bunch too. And his costume was pretty damn legit. Even the whole subplot involving his daughter had some pretty good moments.

I think the main problem I had with this movie is that they didn't focus on this enough. This was the good shit, but either they didn't realize it, or they thought that they had to sugar coat it with a million other ideas. Like the whole Geneco subplot, with the whole Largo family going up in arms, because the head honcho Rotti Largo is going to end up leaving the company soon. This plot wasn't bad, but I just wasn't impressed with it. The Largo brothers Luigi and Pavi were cool in their own ways, but they were just kind of there to be cool. And then Paris Hilton gets involved, and anytime that bitch gets involved in anything, it's never good. She didn't even have to exist in this movie at all. Though she did get her face peeled off, which was fucking rad. But that's all I got out of her. And then Luigi was one angry motherfucker, and that's all I got. And then Pavi wore girl's face, and that's all I got out of him. Thankfully Rotti was smart enough to not consider these guys as heirs to the company, because that shit would be bananas.

And then there's the whole Graverobber thing with his Zydrate stuff. He was pretty cool and all, and had some of the best songs, but why the hell is he called Graverobber? Couldn't they actually give him a cool name or something? Everybody else has a legit name at least, in some respects. Or probably at least call him Grave-something-else. It's just like they lazily called him Graverobber just 'cause he robs graves. This is a pretty minor thing though, but I still felt the need to make that point. The only thing that did bug me about this guy was when he sung "I rob GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAVVVEESS!" I'm sorry, but that line isn't cool enough to scream it, buddy. We already know you rob graves just by your freaking name.

Then I want to touch on is Blind Mag's character. Again, I know she was a pretty significant plot point, and she is one of my personal favorite characters, but goddammit, does she sorely exist just to have those creepy Geneco eyes? With the way this movie treated her, it seemed like she was just there to sing and look creepy. Thankfully she did a good job at that, but at the same time, I just didn't feel much of an impact when all was said and done. She was just the cool creepy-looking one.

One thing I kept thinking about was one thing that J.C's roommate Kyle said about musicals. "The songs may be good, but almost all of the time, the characters are just way too unlikable for me to care." Well, he certainly had a point, and he said this about Chicago and Sweeney Todd. Though of course with me, I enjoyed Chicago and loved Sweeney Todd. But I think the thing that worked so well with Sweeney Todd (which can be comparable to Repo, I guess) was the fact that the characters wound together nicely, and the vengeance was pretty well focused upon. In Repo, the vengeance is showcased with the Repo Man, and then you're distracted by all this random cool shit.

And then there's the songs. Or actually, I really want to refrain from calling them songs, because the majority of the movie is actually a lot of oddly short recitative passages. Now the thing with most operas is that they mix aria and recitative singing very well. Repo kind of does that, but not only does the recitative happen most of the time, but pretty much all of the singers make it sound all bad all of the time. It'd be kind of nice if Repo had some kind of motive to go on, but it seemed like it was just a bunch of random notes with no rhythmn. And then there's the actual songs, which are fairly hit or miss. Even the ones that hit aren't the most amazing things I've ever heard, but they're pretty entertaining. The very best ones are almost all of the songs that the Repo Man does. Not only do they actually have some impact, but the actor actually has fun with some of them too, and makes them that much more entertaining, doing some great physical gags and actually showing some vocal range. As far as bad songs, the actual "Genetic Opera" was extremely underwhelming (except for Blind Mag's song), and "Seventeen" felt very out of place and pointless. And for some reason, Rotti Largo's singing just felt very weird to me.

You know you have a problem when the fundamental basis of your entertainment piece (in this case: the music) isn't all good (and for some reason, the instrumentation was fairly quiet, unlike Sweeney for example). And it seems like, according to the credits, that Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich are the ones that did the music AND wrote the play at the same time. I think they could've used some better influences than the discography at Hot Topic, because it's rather average on both counts.

And you have a bigger problem when your characters aren't flushed out enough because you have too many of them to deal with. And trust me, only using comic page segments for backstory doesn't help much either (oh, and the audience, for SOME ODD REASON, felt the need to read them out loud, even though there was no narrator. WHAT?!) So what's the solution? Really cool gore, that's what! I mean, Darren Lynn Bousman directed most of the Saw sequels, so of course you have to have crazy gore segments...! Well guess what? You definitely get those, but they don't exactly change the fact that not all of your actors can sing that well and that people will probably forget a bunch these characters sooner than they realize. So what do we get? Well, certainly not a timeless classic.

This movie seems like the Rocky Horror Picture Show of our generation. And oddly enough, I wasn't really into that film either. But at least with that film, there was actually some legit singing and acting going on. So why the heck aren't people talking about that film anymore? I swear, the only time in recent memory I've seen that even referenced was on the Venture Brothers when the whole gang dressed up as the cast, and even that was a couple of years ago.

The point I'm getting at is that this movie seems like a fad. This audience that I had to sit through and watch all of their fairly neat cosplay and constant babbling throughout this film, just goes to show that it's kind of a temporary lil' Hot Topic fart in time, here to pass and be adored for a while, and then lost when the next generation comes out. This unfortunately isn't Fight Club the musical. At least the budget was low, so that the people who made this aren't hurting because of it.

And I really kind of feel bad, because it really is a great idea, and Rocky Horror was a great idea too. It's almost staggering how much creativity is going into these sorts of pieces. But something tends to get lost in the translation into the actual product, and it can appeal to some for a short time, but ultimately not leave its mark.

It was certainly entertaining, but in the end, I think I either may've watched this the wrong way, had this thing way overhyped for me, or I have actually called the movie out for what it really is. I don't know for sure, but the thing I am certain on is that I'm ambivalent enough on this movie to share my thoughts about it in journal form. So...w00t?

One thing I will say is that despite what I felt towards this movie, I do wish my buddy Connor the best of luck in getting in that whole shadow casting gig. He's certainly dedicated and talented enough to do so.