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Queen of the Damned (Full Screen Edition)

Queen of the Damned (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $14.96
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Surprisingly sincere, but the ending falls flat
Review: A couple days ago, I went into seeing "In the Bedroom" for the first time with a very positive attitude, willing to give it every break in the world. In my opinion, it was not a good movie. Conversely, last night I went into seeing "Queen of the Damned" with a very cynical attitude. After "Interview With a Vampire" was done so well, how dare this completely different crew of upstarts even try to compete with the first movie? Well, I was pleasantly surprised. For awhile.

What I thought was going to be a very cheap imitation turned out to be a serious attempt to capture the essence of the characters. I've read a lot of "The Vampire Chronicles" several times and the movie more or less got it right with them. I'll also say that Stuart Townsend is arguably a better Lestat than Tom Cruise. I liked the Tom Cruise performance, but when I watch that one I see Tom Cruise maybe trying a little to hard. Stuart Townsend seems to more naturally capture the vanity and arrogance of the character, while still communicating his reluctance to play the game by staying in the shadows.

Even though this one takes a lot of liberties with the book(s), I didn't have that much of a problem with them. Once again, for awhile. Once you accept the fact that this is really a combining of the books "The Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned", you have to expect that some compromises will be made. I did so for awhile, because these characters I knew fairly well from the literature world were acting exactly the way I expected them to act. This might bring problems to those not knowing the story, but it was fine with me.

So I'm cruising along thinking four stars, or maybe even five stars if they can end it right, when all of a sudden, the movie is over. Now the problem of putting long books, plus their own ideas into a movie. The makers of the movie seemed to forget that the title of the movie is "Queen of the Damned", and should have featured the Queen a lot more. You don't get to see her much at all on the screen. Aaliyah does a decent job portraying the mad Akasha, and I wanted to see more of her.

Also missing are the origin of the Queen, which the book went through great lengths to explain. This movie was doing such a good job that I could have easily absorbed another hour of not only her origins, but more about her plot of mass murder. But no, the marketers know that younger people are going to see it, and the attention span is only so long, so let's end the movie right now, even though were not ready to.

Such a shame. They had something here. For awhile.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Could've been better
Review: If you haven't read Anne Rice's "The Vampire Lestat" or Queen of the Damned", then this movie would be great. If you did read them then you and I both know that this movie was totally botched up. I mean, come on, Magnus made Lestat not Marius. And what's with the character choices anyways. Then again, would you expect any differently from a movie made from a book. Look at Steven Kings movies. I say, if you can't produce your own movies, then don't try taking storylines from a book and twisting them around to make them look like your ideas.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW!!
Review: Queen of the damned is definately a classic, as far as vamperic legend is concerned. Ann Rice is an extrordinary writer!! The movie theme totally catches the eye. The way the script is written is brilliant. I felt I was pulled right into the screen through the whole movie. The couldn't have picked a more suitable "Queen" than Aalyiah!!! No one else could have played the part!! I stongly suggest anyone watching this film...Especially if your a creature of the night!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: As scary and suspenseful as "Interview with the Vampire"!
Review: After a few months of waiting, I finally checked out "Queen of the Damned" for myself. I really didn't have the time to see it in the theater. But now that I have seen it, let me just say that this is the best Anne Rice adaption that I've seen since her first film adaption from her "Vampire Chronicles" series, "Interview with the Vampire" back in 1994! But, there is also another side to the film as well...and that is to remember the late, great songstress Aaliyah ("Romeo Must Die"), who died so tragically in that horrible plane crash after filming this movie. I think that she was either 22 or 23 when it happened. To me, "Queen of the Damned" is not really a sequel, but more of a continuation as to what happened at the end of "Interview with the Vampire" involving the vampire Lestat (who was played by superstar Tom Cruise at the time). "Queen of the Damned" focuses once again on Lestat (Now portrayed by Stuart Townsend, "Shooting Fish"), who awakens after his 100-year slumber only to find himself among a new trend in the world...the world of rock music. And so, Lestat finds acceptance in a tattooed and pierced world by reinventing himself as a rock star. And Lestat becomes an overnight sensation around the world, etc. Meanwhile, his intoxicating Goth-riffed sound waves not only awakens the almighty Queen of the Vampires, Akasha (Aaliyah), but his sound also rekindles Akasha's desires as well, which is simply...to rule once again! And to also have Lestat rule by her side as well! Unless an elite few can stop Akasha's reign, everyone, even vampires, in the whole world is doomed! In conclusion, "Queen of the Damned" is in the same scary and gothic spirit as any other horror flick that I've seen, but better! I now own the DVD version of the film which includes tons of extras such as a many number of featurettes (including a featurette that pays tribute to the beloved Aaliyah), 13 deleted scenes, 3 full-length Lestat music videos as they were performed in the film, extended Death Valley concert sequences, theatrical trailer, and DVD-ROM features. And also, in conclusion, this film has not only two great performances from both Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah, but also an excellent supporting cast including Marguerite Moreau ("Firestarter: Rekindled"), Vincent Perez ("The Crow: City of Angels"), and Lena Olin ("Romeo is Bleeding"), as well as an incredible storyline, and a great soundtrack to add! "Queen of the Damned" is a DVD must-own for anyone who has either read Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" series, who has seen "Interview with the Vampire", or who is just an avid horror fan, period!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Damn this boring movie!!!
Review: First I'll make it clear that I am not a fan of Anne Rice's books, and prefer Poppy Z Brite to Rice. Many Rice fans will hate what I am about to say about QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, but why should I care?
The plot concerns Lestat awakening from a century long sleep and discovering rock music, so he takes the guitar as "the instrument of (his) resurrection" and becomes a rock star. Soon the authorities are alerted to "harmful" subliminal messages in Lestat's music (Will Tipper Gore make a comeback and claim Ozzy's a vampire after she sees this movie?)
Despite QUEEN OF THE DAMNED having a darker, more gothic tone than INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, this soon becomes just as much of a leaden bore as its predecessor. But the first five minutes of this movie is better than all two hours of INTERVIEW.
However, on a more positive note the movie features good performances from Aaliyah (though she barely features) and from Stuart Townshend as Lestat- he is far superior to Tom Cruise, who was awful and did moviegoers a huge favor by refusing to do the sequel This movie is already bad enough without Cruise reprising the role.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice visuals, poor plot and acting
Review: The story line revolves around Lestat, last seen onscreen in Interview with the Vampire and played by Tom Cruise. In this installment of the series Lestat is played by Stuart Townsend. He looks nothing like Tom Cruise or the Lestat described by Anne Rice in her books, but he brings to this version of Lestat a darkly brooding and sexual side we didn't see with Tom Cruise. Akasha, although the title character in the movie, is only a minor role. The main story line seems to be between Lestat and Jessie, a member of the Talamasca, who wishes to become a vampire.

While the movie does not follow the book, without having read the book, it is difficult to follow the movie. The characters are not developed, and without the background information available in the book the other vampires, Akasha, Jessie, and the Talamasca would be difficult to understand. As it is, Anne Rice's characters and story plots are mixed together to create something very different from the book. One example is the vampire Marius being introduced as Lestat's maker. In the book Lestat was not made by Marius, and only meets him some years after he had been a vampire. Another example is the violin Lestat gets from the gypsy girl in the movie. In the book Lestat gets the violin from his boyhood friend he makes into a vampire, and who later becomes insane. While I think certain changes do need to be made to make a book into a movie, changing the whole storyline is really too much. This movie is so different from the book that it really should not use the same title.

There are so many ways to compare the movie to the book, and show how the movie is lacking. The book is much better than the movie. However, the soundtrack to the movie is really good and worth buying. Some of the scenes in the movie are really good for the visuals, just skip over the Akasha scenes. She is the worst vampire I have ever seen. I really did like Stuart Townsend's version of Lestat even though it is not faithful to the book in either looks or temperment. And while Jessie was only a minor character in the book, I did like the expansion of her role in the movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: good movie
Review: I must admit I was expecting this movie to be bad since I heard so many negative thing's about it but I decided to see it anyways since I like vampire movies and I was pleasently surprised by it.I liked it from the begining of the movie.I thought Stuart Townsed made a much better Lestat than Tom Cruise.Although it wasn't a great movie it was a good movie compared to the ... other vampire movies like Forsaken and Dracula 2000.If you wanna see a good vampire movie I recommend this one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You won't find the book here, but the movie isn't bad.
Review: If you were looking for an accurate on-screen interpretation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned, then look elsewhere, because you won't find it here. Among all the details that made the film and the book similar, only one of them was true, and that is the method in which Lestat wakes Akasha. Other than that, don't expect much else from the movie to be accurate to the text.

However, as a movie, I believe that it holds its own. Stuart Townsend makes a beautiful Lestat [even for those of us who will always see Lestat as the sensuous fiend portrayed in Interview by the lovely Tom Cruise], and shows the character's cruel side to a "t." However, he did not show as much of Lestat's warm and affectionate side as I would have liked to see. Marius was delightful to watch, unfortunately he was not the same Marius from the book. The fundamental problem with the movie is that, while it uses the names and rough outlines of characters from the book, the characters are so different that they can hardly even be compared to their counterparts in the book. This is probably most obvious in the character of Marius. I very much enjoyed his role in the movie, his slick humor and wit, even his debonaire accent, but he simply cannot be compared to Marius from the book. The two have nothing in common.

I'm rambling now, but I'll get back to the point. As a movie, it's great. Don't bother comparing it to the book, because they are rarely similar and never the same. My biggest complaint is that the ending was weak. Akasha wasn't given enough time to establish why she was so darned evil. And the editors cut the scene in which the ancients are all named. I'm the biggest Anne Rice fan I know, and even I wasn't sure who some of the ancients were supposed to be.

Jonathan Davis [of KoRn] did a terrific job with the music. It's all very much appropriate for the film, and does a beautiful job of setting scene and mood.

Check out the film, but go into it expecting it to be very different than the book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not worth your time!
Review: This movie is just plain horrible, they completely butchered the storyline (Which I expect when I see a movie made from a book I've read, but this was just ridiculous). There is no plot, at least I couldn't find one and then to top it off they made the same mistake alot of other film makers are making... they all seem to have this morbid idea that pop singers can act! Now I will admit Aliyah (how ever you spell her name) does make a cool LOOKING vampire they did do a good job with that, however it's ruined the minute she opens her mouth! Horrible acting! I think the only reason this movie made any money was from Aliyah's fans especially since she died.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It Doesn't Suck (Pun Intended)
Review: Oh come on, Queen of the Damned isn't THAT bad. I will admit, I was very hesitant to watch it, because I was so prepared to hate it. But I didn't. Actually, I really enjoyed it. It's not Oscar-worthy, but no one ever claimed it was. I found myself really getting into it. Half the time, I was laughing at how the acting isn't all that great, and some of the special effects are silly, but that is what makes it so fun! I don't think it tried to be a serious movie, so as long as you don't take it as serious, you should be able to enjoy it as well.
Oh, and I think Stuart Townsend made a much better Lestat than Tom Cruise.


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