La Reine des damnés

I had 3 hours to kill so I went to the nearest movie theatre and saw this movie. i was blown away by the beautiful (music video-like) artistry. I really hate scary movies, but this was focused more on the actual characters, rather then effects. the story played out like poetry, taking emotions of love, hate, and hope, and peace, to a whole new level, with characters that pull you in to their world.

This is a movie that is a bit hard to review. The reason is that there is a HUGE gap between movie quality and soundtracks.

It is siple, the movie is just ok and worth watching. Just do it.

Just watch the movie on, BUT.... You need a good sound system. Not a "half baked" soundboard that sounds like s$it. The movie is just ok as it is, it is a vampire movie that is worth watching at least ones just for the movie it self. But what makes it worth watching a few more times is the music in the movie. Is simply is epic. It is so epic that I have watched the movie 4 times and I dont know how many times I have listen to the sountrack on other medias. It is EPIC! But you really need a good audio system to enjoy it fully.

I recomand you to watch the movie at least ones,

Combining The Vampire Lestat and the Queen of the Damned novels into one screenplay was, ahem, damned to suffer massive story cuts because of the intricate and detailed background of a dozen or so characters involved. The amount of detail always was the strength of the Vampire Chronicles, in my opinion, and they were certainly worth the read.

That said, the question remains, without the detail and extra characters, can the basic story of Lestat's re-awakening of the Queen of all vampires be entertaining and sufficient enough to sustain itself? While I can not answer the question with a glowing appraisal, I will certainly admit that it did a decent job of combining all of the basic elements into a stand alone movie. The fact that this movie can stand on it's own without any ties to the prequel, Interview with the Vampire, is one of it's assets. You do not need any fore-knowledge of the characters, books, or prequel movie in order to watch this.

Even though it fits into it's own little package does not mean it was packed very well. There were some plot holes, some of which could have been filled by simply restoring the "Ancients" scenes that were on the dvd. I understand, as the dvd points out, that they were left out because it introduced another subplot and characters that would add unnecessary confusion. While I agree with their reasoning, I do think they should have somehow salvaged the scene so that while the introductions of the ancients would have been left out, Maharet's few lines about Akasha's reign of destruction and the vampire's responsibility should have remained. They would have added a needed sense of urgency and motivation that would have made the final confrontation with Akasha and the ancients a bit more reasonable and satisfying.

The character of Jessie is supposed to be the human link for the viewer to empathize through as they are taken into the world of vampires. In some scenes, this works adequately, but on the whole, Jessie's motivations, while they are explained, seem kind of empty. I am not sure if I can fault the actress or script, but when the movie was over, I still felt ambivalent about the character's experiences.

There were other elements that were not as fleshed out as they could be. The paranormal Talamasca needed a bit more background about their vampire tracking as did the character of Maharet and her family tree. Like Jessie, they were given some explanation, but I think a couple more lines of dialogue would have helped.

As I mentioned, the movie did a decent job of the basic story, but massive changes were made from the source material. Characters were dropped completely, or merged together, and huge sections of character history were removed. Most notably, Lestat's history is extremely compacted and revised. Nonetheless, there are some things that remained that I thought were done pretty well. The character of Lestat in this picture is rebellious and reckless which is more true to the character than he was portrayed in Interview. Lestat's re-awakening and concert scenes were exactly like I had envisioned when I originally read the book. The character of Akasha was also as I pictured and a very good casting choice.

If you are a fan of the books, and you need the twins, Gabriel, Magnus, and crew, you are going to have difficulty sitting through this. If, on the other hand, you can set that aside and view this as a vampire movie of it's own, unrelated to the chronicles, you will probably enjoy this for the stand-alone vampire flick that it is.

In summary, worth the rental.

I honestly did like "Queen of the Damned", despite it going on more of a MTV twist and not being faithful to the novels, come on. It was just a good movie for horror fans. I felt that it had good ideas and worked pretty well. With some new coming actors and a sexy performance of Aaliyah, the film really couldn't go wrong.

We have a new Lestat, Stewart Townsend, who is just now starting to be more noticed from his last film with Kate Hudsen "About Adam". A lot of people were disappointed that Tom Cruise did not reprise his role, but to be honest as much as Tom did a great job, he couldn't have fit this time into the Rock -N- Roll Lestat. Stewart captured that sexiness and that sleek look of cockiness that was just perfect. All though yes, I didn't really like the romantic side the director took on him, he's still one of our favorite vampires.

Aaliyah, no, she didn't have the look of Akasha, Queen of all that is damned. But she did a good job and was so incredibly beautiful. Her tragic death had just happened before they released "Queen of the Damend" into theaters, RIP! This movie captured her beauty and talent very well. She was so sleek and just sexy during her dancing scene in the pub with the other vamps before her massacre.

There was one very bothersome actress, the one who played Jesse. She did so badly! Her lines, were, she just... gah! She was horrible, you'll have to trust me on that. Otherwise, I think you'll enjoy it, please! Don't compare the book, I like to say to people that if you want the book, read the book. This is a movie and it's not always going to be faithful, it just wanted a hipper look for a younger audience. Yes, of course the books are better, but if you're just looking for a fun horror flick, I'd recommend.

8/10

This might have been a good movie it they hadn't of associated it with the book. Any reader of the Vampire Chronicles knows what I mean. They changed so much of the story that they will be unable to make any of the other books into movies without changing them completely also or remaking this one.

They totally trivalized the debate between Akasha and her 'children'.

Marius (who did not make Lestat btw) in the chronicles is the great reasoner of the Vampires. In the book he had a long argument for Akasha. In the movie all he says to her is "Akasha, please". He was never jealous of Lestat drinking from Akasha (he himself had many many times) and didn't try to hide Enkil and Akasha from Lestat. They turned the Vampires from sad and beautiful creatures of the night who only kill the evil-doer into blood hungry wanna-bes who eat whatever mortal wanders by. Maharet's twin, Mekare, isn't even in the story. Mekare crawling out of the jungles after thousands of years, insane and single minded, to fufill the curse she spoke to Akasha in her court in ancient times was a major plot point. Anyway, my point is that a very well thought-out and seductive story was turned into a joke of a movie. Honestly, don't bother seeing the movie, read the book.