Parents' Guide to Repo! The Genetic Opera

REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA began as a stage play musical; the screen version is bigger, bolder -- and bloodier. The plot combines elements of The Little Mermaid (Shilo, confined to home by illness and a protective father, longs to see the world outside) and King Lear (the dying Largo tries to find a suitable heir for his corporate kingdom), along with a subplot revolving around drug and surgical addiction and an opera singer (Sarah Brightman) who owes her very sight to Largo's corporation and goodwill. But the songs aren't particularly memorable, and while Repo! The Genetic Opera is trying to put a 21st-century spin on the goofy, giddy operatic style of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, this movie is gory and grisly where its inspiration is campy and clever.

But many of the performers are game, especially in their musical performances; Head, for one, has a reedy tenor that sounds not unlike David Bowie, and the operatically trained Sorvino has a rippling, rich baritone that makes his musical numbers pulse with power. Director Darren Lynn Bousman wrings every possible penny of production value out of his budget -- the Blade Runner-inspired future mega-city is an eye-popper -- but the comic-book style graphic interludes that set up the story and show viewers establishing flashbacks are so static and long that they become a bore. Bousman also doesn't do much to shape the material or the performances in a clear way, choosing instead to let the hammering, droning songs propel the film from one moment of special-effects gore to the next. The people behind Repo! The Genetic Opera unquestionably have plenty of passion; regrettably, they could have used a bit less passion and a little more thought and judicious editing.