Besides the Saw connection, there was a cast that might almost make it worth seeing by themselves: Anthony Head from Doctor Who and Buffy, Paul "father of Mira" Sorvino, Paris Hilton (!) and Sarah "Phantom" Brightman.
Well, it was released on DVD this week and I've seen it.
In fact, I've seen it three times in two days (what with the commentaries and all). How was it? Let me put it this way: There's a lyric in one of the songs where the heroine, a terminally ill girl played by Alexa Vega tells her over-protective father (Tony Head)
"I'm 17...and it's better than 40."
The Genetic Opera is an interesting failure...and it's better than being a boring success.
As a piece, it's deliberately histrionic, but that's appropriate for an opera, so that's not why it's a failure. There's crude violence throughout, but (although it's not to my taste), that's not why it's a failure either: The story legitimately does have plenty of opportunities for viscera, both emotional and physical.
Some of the music is worthwhile; many of the performers talented.
Head is the greatest thing here as a split personality, part good man trying to raise a daughter on his own...part Sweeny Todd-like "night surgeon".
Buffy fans know that Anthony Stewart Head has a background in show tunes, but Paul Sorvino's trained operatic voice may come as a surprise.
Sorvino plays the owner of "GeneCo," which sells live organs needed for transplant. But if you can't keep up the payments, well, that's where the "Repo" men come in...legal assasins...and yes, Monty Python did do this about 25 years ago.
Alexa Vega is new to me (not having seen the Spy Kids films). She is awkwardly charming here, as one might expect a dying, sheltered 17-year-old to be. If the father-daughter relationship between her and Tony Head doesn't work the whole piece won't work, fortunately, it's one of the parts that works.
Vega's singing voice seems to have been aided by recording studio technology here and there, but that's not a crime (and it's only occasionally obvious).
(Incidentally, Vega herself has a "Saw connection"--her younger sister McKenzie played the part of Cary Elwes' daughter in the first film.)
I said up there that much of this movie was appropriately over-the-top; the problem with Terrance Zdunich's performance is that he isn't over-the-top enough.
His character, the self-descriptive "Graverobber," is meant to be a kind of narrator along the lines of Ché in Evita. But such a role requires a certain amount of star quality that Zdunich, kindly, just ain't got, however, he did co-write the piece.
This brings me to Paris Hilton. If you saw the nominations for the "Razzie" awards, you know that Hilton just got one of her three nominations as "worst supporting actress" for this film.
I never thought I'd be in the position of defending Paris Hilton...but this is not fair; it seems more based on people's negative perception of Hilton herself than on her actual work in the film.
Of that, we'll never know just how much of her performance was "created" in the editing room, but I can say this: She doesn't stink up the joint. Hilton is never going to be in my "holy trinity" of actresses (all together now: Hunter, Winslet, Hathaway), but this movie doesn't ask her to be.
It asks her to play what's essentially a mafia daughter (with Sorvino as the Don) who skips around in lingerie
and is addicted to plastic surgery. Anyone here who doesn't think Paris Hilton could knock that role out in her sleep?In one sense Sarah Brightman, whose first movie this is, doesn't have to stretch too far either: She plays an opera star. But this is one who was born blind but given eyes by GeneCo.
One or two of the best songs in the picture belong to Brightman. In particular, "Chase The Morning" offers an aching glimpse of what this "sci-fi rock musical" could've been if the whole thing had worked as well.
It's a trio sung by Brightman, Vega, and a hologram-sample of the Vega character's dead mother. (The part of the mother is sung by Nancy Long, who is married to Darren Smith, who co-wrote the piece with Zdunich)
As Hilton's violently insane brother, Bill Moseley doesn't have a great singing voice, but the novelty of seeing Otis P. Chop Top belt out a song counts for a lot.
One of Sorvino's other sons in the film must've been in the minds of the Lionsgate promotions people when they designed the poster for Saw V, as the character wears human faces as masks.Is it (why it doesn't work) the look of the film, then? Well, no--especially considering its evidently-low budget, visually it's kind of dazzling.
So what's the problem? Well, I'm afraid it's the storytelling. The movie plays as though it had been edited by placing scene numbers on a roulette wheel, spinning it, and whenever the needle stops, that scene goes in.
What we get is multiple entrances for each character, accompanied by animated comic-book sequences giving backstory. These are well-drawn (by Terrance Zdunich, who also co-stars in and co-wrote the piece) but insulting.
It's as if someone somewhere decided the audience for this film was incredibly stupid, and had to be told everything three times. So the comic book tells us something. And the characters themselves tell us something. And the other characters tell us something about the other characters...and it's all the same thing. We get it, already!
It's like a long first act followed by a perfunctory second, with very little character development in-between.
In the commentaries, Bousman mentions that he hopes to be able to do a "director's cut" someday, it would be interesting to see if this improved the "running order"
But is it worth seeing (as-is)? Abso-friggin'-lutely, with one proviso: Did you know what I was talking about when I mentioned Sweeney Todd and Evita? Put more simply, do you love (or even like) musicals? Because if not, it's unlikely this is going to reward your viewing.
But if so...
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