Repo Men Rip-off

OK, so I've been neglecting this blog somewhat for the latter half of 2009. I had a family berevement and then a completely disasterous Semester 1 (partly as a result of grieving, partly due to illness and partly due to other reasons I'd rather not discuss, that's what lj's for), so I didn't feel much like writing about anything for a while. However, it's a new year and now I'm all riled up and ready to discuss some issues and shoot them in the face. :)

EDIT: After reading the following, see comments!

Anyway, a while back Universal Pictures announced that they were making a film called Repossession Mambo (I know, stupid name, right) and I, along with many other Repoles had hoped it would never get as far as production. Unfortunately it has, but with a less idiotic name and soon Repo Men will grace our cinemas with all it's big-budget Hollywood polish and none of the charm of the film which it ripped-off, Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Now, whilst I am a raging Repo! fan and wardrobe misstress/unofficially Luigi Largo for the Scalpel Scots Shadowcast *coughshamelessplugcough* I am, generally, a reasonable person and am willing to look at both sides of the issue in as unbiased a way as possible.

Here are the trailers so you can compare and contrast:

Repo Men



Repo! The Genetic Opera



So, what are the similarities? Well, they're both "Set in the near future when artificial organs can be bought on credit" and feature organ repossession or "murder [that] is sanctioned by law". The barcodes, an integral part of the Repo Men poster, trailer and website, whilst a generic enough image, seems a little too coincidental, since barcodes also feature fairly heavily within Repo!, on the repossessed organs themselves alongside the GeneCo logo. It is also one of the most common fan tattoos for Repoles to get (along with "chase the morning, yeild for nothing" and zydrate in some shape or form). And, from what I can gather from the Repo Men poster and trailer, there seems to be an ever so slightly zydrate blue filter over quite a few of the scenes; that may sound a bit paranoid on my part, but I'm one of those people who watches a film and notices the mechanism behind a chimney falling over (it drives my wee brother insane when I point them out, that's why I do it) or figures out how they could have made that dress or this prop or that piece of set, or notices when the actor's shirt has changed slightly from scene to scene (the end of Moonwalker drives me absolutely mental when MJ's shirt is clearly several different shirts ripped differently and I wonder how many takes it took to film). It actually takes a pretty damn good storyline for me to not be distracted by these things on the first viewing. Also, if they're not cajun or French-speaking, a character is not allowed to be called Remy, it's just not sexy otherwise.

And the differences? Well, the budget for one. Perhaps the genre? OK, so Repo! is a goth/rock opera and thus, has singing, which its big-budget relative does not. I'm also going to guess, from the trailer and just general knowledge, that Repo Men is not a horror flick, but is rather an action movie and, thus, will not be quite as gorey as Repo!; especially since its not dirrected by Darren Lynn Bousman. The Repo Men themselves, of course. Yes, Jude Law is a reasonably good actor and he's very nice to look at I'm sure (he's not a patch on Michael Caine for the part of Alfie though), but he ain't got nothing on Anthony Stewart Head. This may be a little bit of bias creeping in since I'll watch nearly anything with Anthony Head in it (except for the BBC's Merlin, coundn't stand that), including Imagine Me and You - "Fuck you and your fucking candles!" - which is a pretty good film in itself. But still, that's not really always a deciding factor, the first time I heard about Repo! even that couldn't entice me to watch something with Paris Hilton in it (she's actually not that bad since she is essentilly playing Paris Hilton with black hair, but more gutsy). I'm glad I soon dismissed my prejudice and gave it a go anyway; wish I had done when I first heard of it, beacuse then I wouldn't have missed the UK Roadshow. Another difference is the general look of the thing. The story of Repo! is played out in a much grungier, less polished, more post-apocalyptic setting, with costumes much more akin to Waterworld or Mad Max than it's Hollywood counterpart, which has gone for the easier option of suits and modern, everyday t-shirts and jeans. Much easier to source and make, but a little bit of a boring cop-out in comparison.

Also, the storyline is a little different, although the basic premise is exactly the same. Repo Men foucuses on the action hero who's a bit miguided at the beginning cliche; he starts out working for 'the faceless corporation' who he thinks are doing the right thing up until some dramatic/tramatic turning point (in this case getting a new heart he can't pay for). When he is suddenly faced with this dilemma he goes into hiding/switches sides, falls in love with a girl from that side, gets her and goes on to save the people he's been fighting against for years and goes against/takes down 'the man'. Sounds familiar to you? Yeah, the simple, boring, easy option that's been used a million times before. The story that lets Hollywood get on with the bit where they make it look all shiny and cool with lots of explosions (see: Michael Bay's Transformers films, see James Cameron's Avatar). So that they can get on with churning out another ten like it, just with different characters and set in a different part of America. It's like those Orange ads you get in the cinema, so true. It's one of those films where you can watch the trailer and get the entire plot from that one minute mash-up of scenes; you don't even have to watch the film.

On the other hand, Repo! the Genetic Opera focuses on the intertwining lives of a whole host of different characters, all in some way connected to eachother and how they interact in this strange dance of life in a city run by GeneCo. At times, those interactions are often slightly creepy or wrong (as attested to by the sheer amount Grilo and Largocest fanart/fiction out there that you can pretty much justify just from watching it), but still somehow compelling to watch. It's a pshycological horror/gorefest with flawed and imperfect characters who's lives are interesting to learn about; there are no more heroes, just anti-heroes, villians and people who are somewhere in between. There are complex(ish) themes of revenge, drug/surgery addiction and you can even read political/environmental/beauty-mania warnings from it. I know, all this from a film featuring Paris Hilton... It also features the most well deserved slap in a film ever, which makes it A-OK in my book. There are also amazing vocal performances from Sarah Brightman as Blind Mag, Terrance Zdunich as Graverobber and Paul Sorvino as Rotti Largo. Plus, some surprisingly good acting from Alexa Vega as Shilo Wallace (daughter of Repoman Nathan, played Anthony Stewart Head). Also, it has Bill Mosley and Ogre from Skinny Puppy as Luigi and Pavi Largo who make a hilerious and insane trio with their sister Amber Sweet (told you, Paris Hilton = better than expected). I can't really go into too much detail without spoiling it, but its certainly more original and involved than Repo Men. And of course, 10 out of 9 Genterns will confirm, everyone loves the Pavi!

But why are the plots so so similar anyway? Actually, Terrance Zdunich (writer/Graves), Darren Smith (bandleader) and co originally went to Universal Pictures with their idea when they were going to convert Repo! The Genetic Opera from a stage show into a movie originally and were turned down. Lionsgate picked up the film and only after they released it and it proved to be an instant cult success did Universal announce they were making Repossession Mambo/Repo Men. Unfortunately, whilst it is morally bankrupt of Universal to steal this idea, there is not much the Repo! team can do about it since it counts as a remake or something. In a David versus Goliath situation, sadly, Hollywood nearly always wins. To quote Labyrinth: "Them's my rightful property. It's not fair." (Hoggle) "No, it isn't. But that's the way it is." (Sarah). No, it's not right, its not fair, but it's not going to change anytime soon, I hope that in the future it will though. Of course, if they did decide to purse some sort of action, every Repole out there would stand behind them and shout foul play (in fact many already are).

A lot of Repo! fans (including me, initially), are calling a boycott on Repo Men. However, film boycott doesn't necessarily work. Certainly, I won't be paying good money to go see Repo Men in the cinema when it comes out and I hope it flops at the box office, but I might watch it when it eventually comes on tv just to see what all the fuss is really about. I'll no doubt still prefer Repo! in the same way that I prefer A Bugs Life to Antz or couldn't care either way with Madagascar and The Wild. This sort of thing always happens, it's happened before, it'll happen again; its different horse for different courses. Repo! will appeal to one audience and Repo Men will appeal to another, but with any luck more people with discover Repo! when the media, etc eventually (late to the party as usual) get hold of the contraversey surrounding it and the copycat Repo Men. So far they have mainly been saying it's trading off the 1984 film Repo Man's name (but not content), yet have not quite worked out that it's an almost direct rip-off of Repo!, despite all the fuss Repoles have already been making.

Whatever happens, I for one, am getting a bit sick of seeing remake after remake and rip-off after rip-off being churned out in cinemas today; all style and no substance. Star Trek (and I've been a bit of trekker since I was about five) and Sherlock Holmes are exceptions, because they're actually good and not essentially the just the same old story, as mentioned earlier. What happened to those big, show-stopping, old musicals and what about movies that weren't the film equivalent (or just actually) porn without plot? OK, sometimes (yes, I do like Mamma Mia) a bit of cliched fluff can be a bit of fun and just what you wanted to watch, but not every single bloody film that comes out. Hollywood, I challenge you to do something original for a change! And, no Avatar doesn't count, the techniques may be amazing, original, visually stunning and breathtaking, but the story/plot was the same-old, same-old generic twaddle.

Why not take a leaf out of AD Lane/indywood films' book and do something like the plot/story equvalent of his inovate online funding initative? *coughOKmoreshamelessplugtimecough*