I own the soundtrack. Read Lestat and Queen of the Damned. The downside when I saw the movie was they cut so much out, I had trouble figuring out the names of the Vampires I read about. I guessed right, because on the deleted scenes portion of the DVD they tell you who is Armand, etc. Liked the books better. The movie grows on you the more you see it, the more you like.
Stuart Townsend was great for the role of Lestat but the movie was not as good as i had hoped although i am still glad to have seen it...it was a bit interesting i guess and the acting by the vampire characters was very good
I read this book when it first came out but am only now getting around to seeing this flick. I thought some of the casting was inspired. Stuart Townsend's Lestat was very good, maybe even more like I pictured Lestat than Tom Cruise was and Aliyah made a nice Akasha. Ultimately the attempt to merge two EPIC novels (The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned) into 1 movie is failed since MUCH of the stories, characters and overall depth was just cut out. This story just needs a bigger canvas to really do it justice. Unless you get a thrill out of seeing these characters live in a film from the books, they are really shallow and empty portraits. It's too bad.
Really enjoyable... brilliant soundtrack..! gives a more down to earth vision of Vampires! thou alot of the Vampires in the film were very poor in their ways
One of my favorites, Stuart Townsend was fantastic, definitely a must-see for sexy vampire lovers :) Lestat's character just intrigues your interest from the beginning.
One of my favorite vampyr movies. Its just really sexy. The whole feel of it. It makes me all tingly inside. Its kind of sad that this was Aaliyah's only and last movie. She did a great job of becoming the Queen of the Damned. It was just an awesome movie.
There was a time when vampires were demonic horrors - soulless creatures of the night preying upon unsuspecting innocents. Nowadays, the trend is to humanize and de-mythologize these monsters, transforming them into the erotic anti-heroes of purple prose novels and cheesy B-movies. At the forefront of this movement is Anne Rice, whose bestselling "The Vampire Chronicles" have been read by millions of fans worldwide. Interview with the Vampire, the first movie to be culled from these novels, is an entertaining, if flawed, excursion into the tortured world of the undead. Queen of the Damned, which by all accounts butchers its source material, is the kind of mess that never should have made it to theaters. In fact, according to a well-publicized rumor, Warner Brothers was considering releasing it direct-to-video until Aaliyah's post-mortem visibility spike made this multiplex dump a viable possibility.
By turns incoherent, campy, and shamelessly self-indulgent, Queen of the Damned seems to have been assembled using the discarded pieces of music videos and other movies. It's 100 minutes of MTV-inspired filmmaking, with a metal soundtrack that would wake the dead and a video style that demands all sort of filters, odd angles, quick cuts, and other, assorted trickery. Believing the director to be an uninspired hack fresh from cutting his teeth on music videos and commercials, I was surprised to learn that director Michael Rymer helmed the low-budget, insightful drama Angel Baby. But that was seven years ago, and nothing of the promise he showed then is evident here.
The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It will confuse those who haven't read "The Vampire Chronicles" and will infuriate those who have because of the number of omissions and changes. The vampire Lestat (Stuart Townsend), bored with hanging around in a coffin, decides to re-invent himself as a modern-day rock star. So he comes out of the crypt, so to speak, and admits that, yes, he drinks blood and he's proud of it. He becomes an instant media sensation, and the other vampires aren't pleased. Meanwhile, Jesse (Marguerite Moreau), a young student of all things dark and dangerous, becomes obsessed with meeting Lestat after reading his secret diary. So she arranges an assignation, which results in a spark of mutual attraction. But Jesse has a rival for Lestat's affections - the evil and powerful Queen Akasha (Aaliyah), who has recently risen from her slumber and intends for the rock star vampire to be her consort.
When Interview with the Vampire was adapted into a movie, many Rice fans objected to the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat. However, compared to Stuart Townsend's version, Cruise's is definitive. Townsend creates an absurd Lestat - a whining, effeminate rocker who is more laughable than dangerous. It's a horrible performance, but hardly the worst of the movie. Aaliyah, who was credible in her motion picture debut (Romeo Must Die) is so over-the-top that she's fun to watch: shimmying and shaking, flashing her teeth, and rolling her eyes. Respected British actor Paul McGann manages something truly amazing in the midst of all this excess - he underplays his role as the scholarly David Talbot, and actually manages to keep a straight face through every scene he's in.
The film's erotic subtext has been devoured by silliness. There's plenty of titillation, but no payoff (the R-rating is strictly because of gore; Queen of the Damned's sexual elements are strictly PG-13). There are no characters to care about or despise. The only reason the movie can occasionally be considered watchable is because individual scenes are so outrageously dumb that they are hilarious. That's not a reason to see the movie - at least not sober - but if you are blackmailed into the experience, at least there's a silver lining. Or, to put it another way, watching the film doesn't turn into a voyage of the damned - at least not entirely. The potential is there for a biting comedy, but the filmmakers were apparently oblivious to how funny this movie sometimes is. Like many genuinely awful movies, Queen of the Damned has the ingredients of a cult film. However, the qualities that will endear it to a twisted few are the aspects that will cause the mainstream movie-goer to avoid this production like the plague.
It is required that a person not think of this movie as having anything to do with either the film "Interview with the Vampire" or Anne Rice's books. It turns away from its founders completely, using mostly names and loose plot base but definitely does not adhere to the book. It's certainly not as good as "Interview with the Vampire", but it's okay if thought of as a seperate movie entirely. Plus, this is probably the cleanest vampire movie out there, suitable for young viewers.
I haven't read the books but it can bee seen there was 2 books treid to stuff into one movie and it works well enough but I believe could have been so much better as well. I really enjoy this even if I prefer more the past century theme in vampire stories. This is still all in all very much worth watching, a pretty good film in a film standard even if not as compared to the books. Very entertaining movie.
The music is indescribably ass-kicking awesome and Stuart's Lestat is far more charming and sensitive than the Tom Cruise's version, which works for me better. The books' big fans usually tear this movie down and see nothing good in it but....that's just the typical fanatic way they are and it doesn't have to mean the movie is bad at all. I LOVE this movie <3
It's a few steps down from Interview with the Vampire. Still, it's sexy and cool even if it has it's dumb moments. The under-rated Stuart Townsend isn't bad as a more manly Lestat than Tom Cruise's. Cruise was still better in the part though.
Aaliyah plays Akasha, Mother of Vampires, Queen of All Who Are Damned. Stewart Townsend is The Vampire Lestat.
He wishes for a measure of humanity and recognition in his (after) life, She wants to reign in Blood, to drink her fill and kill like there's no tomorrow. the movie is awsome, the book is better. (Look for author Anne Rice)
MCT:October 11, 2008
MCT:September 9, 2008
MCT:August 27, 2008
MCT:August 21, 2008
MCT:August 15, 2008
MCT:August 13, 2008
MCT:August 3, 2008
