Customer Reviews

Queen of the Damned

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(73)
3 star:		(68)
2 star:		(52)
1 star:		(107)

 

 

This movie didnt really appeal 2 me when i first watched it, i only like the soundtrack, so i kept watchin it again 4 the songs, but the more i saw the more dramatic, entertaining and erotic it became. stuart is a spunk who oozez dark sexiness and so is the late aaliyah who showed just how great she would have was and just how far she could have gone. im totally in luv wit this film but if u arnt into dark eroticness then maybe it aint 4 u.

I just saw this awful excuse for a movie, and I am going to try my best to keep others from making my mistake!
I have loved Anne Rice since shortly after Interview With A Vampire (the movie) came out. Tom Cruise's portrayal of Lestat, in particular, drew me into the story. Now, true, the character Louis was hard to get behind (accurate to the book; Louis IS kind of a whiner) and Antonio Banderas, though he portrayed Armand beautifully, was physically inappropriate for the role, and the end was a major departure from the book, but the movie held true to the general plot and personalities and feel of Anne Rice's world.
Not so with Queen of the Damned. It seems like the scriptwriters barely gave a nod to the plot; they borrowed the names of characters, but didn't even bother with their actual personalities.

Lestat is a vampire. A self-proclaimed monster. He's not a nice guy. But he also drinks only the blood of the evil doer. I wouldn't call the poor girls he was chasing around in the movie evil doers. And Lestat is in love with humanity. Not just Jesse; he loves the members of his band, he loves David, he loves humans he comes into contact with. Humanity fascinates him
As a note, I do think that with a better script, and a better idea of what he was doing, Stuart Townsend might have been as good a Lestat as Tom Cruise; maybe even better. But for all of you teenyboppers out there who JUST LOVE STUART TOWNSEND OMG!!111!!, I'm sorry, but just because an actor is hot doesn't mean that any movie he does is good. Plus Lestat is blond. It seems like a silly thing to nitpick, but Anne Rice makes SUCH a big deal about it in her descriptions of him that it is in fact important. I mean, Tom Cruise dyed HIS hair for the role in Interview, and pulled it off quite well.
Then there's David. You don't see much of our boy David in the movie, which is ok. The little we saw of him, he was even well-portrayed. Except one little thing. Insiginficant, really, except that it's an essential part of the character. David is in his 70's. Hello?!
Then of course, there's Marius. What did these butchers masquerading as screenwriters do to our lovely artist, our Roman scholar? They turned him into some sort of ... villain! Anyone who has read Vampire Lestat would cringe... To someone who actually read the book ABOUT Marius, his portrayal was perhaps the most painful of all. And to clarify a few key plot points related to Marius; he is NOT Lestat's maker. Teacher, perhaps, friend certainly, but not his maker. Moreover, Marius was trapped under tons of ice for most of the duration of Queen of the Damned; trapped by Akasha when she escaped so that he would not be able to interfere.
And Akasha... Aaliyah was great as Akasha. She was just as I'd pictured her, and the only reason I gave this movie two stars instead of just one. But, for the record, Akasha and Enkil were not actually statues. Their skin looked like marble, but not their clothes or eyes or hair or whatever. They had color, but the morons who wrote the screenplay apparently missed this.
Jesse, along with Maharet and the other ancients, is such a two-dimensional character in this movie I won't even go into them, except to say that it's sad that such characters so essential to the plot were so ignored. Or, in the case of Mekare, Maharet's twin, not mentioned at all.
Now, a few notes about vampire lore. In the vampire club, when Jesse goes in looking for Lestat, claiming a relationship with the ancient Marius, one of the vampires tells her all of the ancients are dead. There is a reason for this belief. Just before Marius' time, Akasha and Enkil, her king, were dragged out into the sun by their keeper, in a bid to end their existence. While Akasha and Enkil only acquired a deep tan, because Akasha, who was the mother of ALL vampires, was burned, so every single other vampire was burned. New vampires were immolated; older vampires didn't die, but existed in agony. Vampires were nearly wiped out. Akasha's blood did NOT bequeath Lestat the ability to walk in the sunlight with no fear. If Akasha had actually walked into the sun, or through the fire, most of the vampiric population would have exploded into flame.
Last of all, worst of all, is the plot. The scriptwriters took the most insignificant scene and turned it into the bulk of the movie. Lestat's awakening and discovering of rock music isn't even IN Queen of the Damned, it's in The Vampire Lestat. Moreover, that and the later battle comprise of perhaps two chapters, one out of each book. And yet in the movie, it's more than three quarters of the story! The rich history of the vampires is never touched on, even though it's the bulk of the plot in the book. It's vaguely mentioned that whoever drinks the last drop of Akasha's blood won't survive, but not why; they don't mention that if Akasha dies, all vampires die. And where is Mekere, Maharet's dumb (as in, tongue was cut out, not as in stupid) sister, the one who eventually took Akasha's essence into herself? Where is Akasha's quest to eliminate most men, to elevate women and establish herself as their goddess? Gone. Not even touched on.
This was awful. If you'd never read the book, I can't understand how you could ever follow the plot, and if you did read it, the plot makes you want to rip your own eyes out to make it stop. Hot actors and flashy special effects are no replacement for vivid storytelling and deep characters. Don't waste your money, don't waste your time, DON'T watch this movie.

I totally enjoyed this movie, the two lead characters carry most of the movie themselves, they make it well worth watching over and over again. As long as you can watch it without comparing it to the books it is based on, you will enjoy the ride. Amazing music as well.

"Queen of the Damned"is based on the novel by Anne Rice,as part of her
popular "The Vampire Chronicles" series.The screenplay is written by
Scott Abbott,and directed by Michael Rymer(various episodes of the new
Battlestar Galactica Series)Stuart Townsend plays the vampire Lestat de
Lioncourt,and Aaliyah plays Queen Akasha,The Queen of the Damned.the
basic plot is that Lestat has been asleep for hundred of years.he wakes
up to a new world and craves to become famous.he becomes a wildly
popular rock singer,and publicly announces the existence of
vampires.The vampires are threatened by this and believe their
continued survival is at risk.they attempt to destroy Lestat before he
can do irreparable harm.meanwhile,Lestat's music has awakened an
ancient evil,Akasha,mother of all vampires"queen of the Damned".Akasha
has decided to take Lestat as her king.i'll leave the plot at
that.moving on,Stuart Townsend,as Lestat,gives an astounding
performance.his charisma and screen presence radiate off the
screen.But,it is Aaliyah,in the title role,who steals the show with a
performance nothing short of miraculous.she is simply smoldering as the
queen.this is Aaliyah's last screen role before tragedy struck.there is
no doubt she would have gone on to become a legend.as for the movie
itself,it is stylish beyond words,beautifully photographed,superbly
directed.add to that a haunting musical score,and you have one
extraordinary movie.i loved this film. 5/5

Quickly: not bad, not good, could see it being a cult film, sure the 'Rice' fans loved or loathed it.

Summary: another odd movie. It's called Queen of the Damned but takes a lot of it's story from The Vampire Lestat. Pretty much seemed like a bunch of hollywood tycoons looked at the sucess of The Crow and Interview and decided to make a movie that kinda mixed the two. Lestat the vampire wakes after years of slumber due to NuRock and makes a band. Then breaks the Traditions (don't mind me mixing Vamp mythologies will you?) and calls out the Vampires and gives away their secrets. At the same time he awakens the Queen of the Vampires and gets chased by fangirl Talamasca Jessie.

The Good: Some of the effects were pretty cool, pretty much everything but the 'speed' effect was kinda neat to see. I thought Mr. Townsend made a good Lestat. I personally liked the soundtrack mixing some good Alternative/Metal/Industrial and NuRock. It seemed to fit well, though the music videos had to go. The characterizations were pretty good for most of the characters. I could definately see this making some fanboys/girls happy.

The Bad: I could have sworn Jessie was a lot younger in the books, it's been a long time though. The whole Talamasca think could have been explained way better. I am sure there were many people out there thinking wtf at this one. It was definately created for fans of the books. The effects of flying vamps and speed were really annoyingly sad.

The Ugly: still confused as to why they mixed and matched a bunch of different storylines. Maybe they new this would flop and it would be the only chance to get some of this stuff out there. Why does a vampire who's skin is solid like stone, also have jewelery and clothes that look like stone. Even more so why does it then suddenly turn into normal along with her skin turning into that of a young black girl? What's up with Actors dying while making goth films?

Overall: better then I remembered it being. Not horrible, and as mentioned, fans of the series will either love this or loath it. It's a fairly cool vamp movie, but mixes up a pretty popular story. Some of the effects are cool, but some are uber lame.

holy snappin crap, lou! if this travesty is supposed to be an adaptation of the literary masterpeice that shares its title, then i'm brad pitt. or a flying monkey. either one would be more believable. i would like to see this thing done in lego, then maybe it could somewhat amuse me.

I hated Tom Cruise as Lestat. I thought he violated the heart of the character. He played Lestat as a fop which to some degree was the misperception of Louis. (Louis didn't know at the time that Toms family was pretty much wiped out and actually was minor nobility and Louis didn't understand until much later Lestats loneliness nor how Lestat had protected him. He also didn't know then that all of Lestats kills even then were justice and not indiscriminate)Tom Cruise came across as a vicious prankster.

Although Interview was very sumptuous visually, Tom Cruises portrayal ruined the movie for me.
Townsons portrayal was much more accurate, dangerous,danger loving and sexual at the same time. The only thing really amiss in the characterization is that Lestat can be very introspective though never to the degree Louis is(well he came pretty close in M the Devil.) Also I thought the MTV video type action was quite in keeping with the tone of the book.
What was totally frustrating was the ending. The movie departed so much from the book and made such a mess of the characters that you would have a hard time relating to the remaining books if Queen the movie was your only reference.

I felt this movie was a young, refreshing take on the story we all fell in love with. When watching this film, one must keep in mind that as with all films made from actual books, it is up to the director's creative vision as to how they turn out. I noticed quite a few inconsistancies between The Vampire Lestat/Queen of the Damned books and the movie Queen of the Damned. There were many things not only wrongly stated, but left out and improperly portrayed compared to the book. As previously stated, however, we must look at this movie just for what it is...A movie. As a movie, it displayed amazing visual effects, body-moving music that appeals to a much younger crowd than Interview with the Vampire (I adored that movie by the way) and an erapturing cast that had me pulled in every direction their character went. I felt this movie was very well assembled despite the high expectations IWTV set for it, the change in casting and the fact that it was a combination of two books meaning that the director had more material to work with in an even less amount of time.

I can't explain why Anne Rice allowed her work to be brutally mutilated. Akasha's present plans and motives are vain, even in the book. But, the core of the book is the Egyptian mythology that Anne Rice adapted to the her vampire world, which makes her works absolutely enticing; this is what the movie leaves out completely, while altering many details, and including non existent fragments. The result is this ludicous excuse for a film... just another Hollywood project lacking substance.

I saw this movie and fell in love with it. I was madly in love with all of AALIYAH'S work. True the movie does leave out a ton of details but it basically has the same ending, Akasha dies and Lestat lives. I think the movie should of had more gore and blood in it. I Personally think that if they had put more violence in the movie it would have gotten higher ratings. I am not really fond of Stuart Townsend but i am glad they used him instead of Tom Cruise. They should have put Maharet's sister in the movie and they should of put Akasha showing Lestat the supposed cruelties of the world. They shouldn't have skipped around so much. I like Aaliyah's elaborate costumes. They look good on her. They should have mentioned the other vampire's names you don't know who is who. And Why does Pandora die if I remember correctly she lived in the book. This movie has not done Anne Rice's book a lot of justice but I do think it makes a satisfactory movie. May AALIYAH rest in piece. She is well missed.