La Reine des damnés

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.

The rest of the movie is great. The cast and crew did a stellar job (Aaliyah is chillingly beautiful) and the soundtrack is unparalleled, it fits the movie perfectly.

Ignore the low score on IMDb. Watch and enjoy it as a stand-alone film, as it is a world away from Interview With The Vampire. At least an 7/10 if you like the genre, and it is on Netflix in most countries, so go for it

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.

I'm notorious among my loved ones for my love of movies that most people wouldn't like. I'm blessed with a gift to appreciate them, I guess. And I'm also blessed with the ability to take movies as totally separate from their book counterparts. Die hard Ann Rice fans might not like this movie because it slams two books (The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned) into one to make a relatively short film. So, obviously, a lot of the story was changed or left out. Which makes it understandable why some were upset. I mean, come on, Interview With the Vampire was over two hours long, and it was the movie version of just one book.

However, taken as it's own story, the movie is actually very good. Well, in my opinion. Stuart Townsend's portrayal of Lestat is wonderful. And it doesn't hurt that he takes off his shirt quite a bit (he has a really nice, defined, if lean, body) and wears leather pants quite a bit. He also has the rock star quality that is often missing when most actors play musicians. You can see how into the music he is. He also is able to project Lestat's arrogance and loneliness very well.

Vincent Perez, who plays Marius, also does a wonderful job. Though quite popular in Europe, he is sadly under-appreciated in the U.S. I can't honestly say that his portrayal was dead on (so to speak) because I haven't read any of the books the character appears in, but I thought he was quite good. (Another one that is good-looking, ladies.)

Akasha, unfortunately, displays very few emotions, so Aaliyah didn't get a chance to really showcase her acting talents in her final performance, but she did play the evil vampire convincingly. Since she was said to be quite pleasant in real life, I'd say her performance was excellent.

Most of the remaining cast were also enjoyable, if not impressive in their performances.

There are also interesting special effects.

I loved this movie.

If nothing else, you should at least check out the soundtrack. The songs are well penned and preformed by a number of talented musicians. My advice? At least give this movie a chance. Despite the bad reviews, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Centuries ago, Lestat grew weary of eternity alone and decided to go to sleep and hope that it would serve as a sort of death. The years turn to centuries and something changes to the point where Lestat decides to get up (well, after five more minutes maybe). The sound that awakens him is not the industrial revolution, not the invention of the engine nor world wars but a rather bland collection of heavy metal music. Seeing how their fans worship the musicians, Lestat becomes one, however his fame brings the attention of a group of paranormal investigators – in particular the curious Jesse. However Lestat's problems are not them but the other vampires who do not appreciate the publicity he has brought to their kind, not to mention the original Queen of the vampires, Akasha, who wishes to make Lestat her new king.

This film struggles because it opens with a silly idea (that Lestat only returns because of formulaic heavy metal music) that it cannot get over for the majority of the time because it just doesn't scan at all. With this as its main narrative thrust (it never gets away from it) it is no surprise to find that the film fails to engage on more than a "trashy movie" level. It provides enough in the way of entertainment to be watchable but only if you're in an undemanding mood because it doesn't have anything that interesting in it and is consistently just quite bland. It doesn't help that the film feels cheap in many areas. The special effects consist of a blurring effect whenever anyone moves and this gets old very, very quickly. The use of rather basic metal music also makes it feel cheap – I'm not sure why but it just doesn't work.

Not meaning to be unkind but you can't help feel the film is smaller when you compare this cast with the cast that were originally in "Interview". Townsend cannot help but send out low-rent vibes; he was enjoyable in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but here he cannot carry the depth of the character (not that the script helps him out much) and he just does OK but nothing more. Aaliyah's death was a loss to the world of r'n'b but, on the basis of this film, she was no loss to the world of acting as she is terrible throughout. Behind a horrid accent, she seems to think that all she has to do is slink around the screen and, while that works in music videos, it is nowhere near enough for a film. In contrast Moreau is at least interesting even if her character makes no sense – she is sexy when she has to be but is also vulnerable at the same time. Perez is dull, Olin is underused and McGann just floats around the edges of the film.

Overall this is a pretty average film. If it is Saturday night and you are just looking for something brief and noisy to pass the time then this might do but there isn't really that much to it. A basic story based on an absurd idea is delivered with poor direction, low-rent actors and a lack of anything special in any aspect – very few viewers will be satisfied with this.