Rating: 
Summary: Made for TV movie that somehow got to the big screen
Review: I read "Interview with the Vampire," "The Vampire Lestat," and "Queen of the Damned" years ago. Ann Rice's books were quite the rage at the time of their initial release. She took such creative license with the vampire lore that she made it her own. It was unique and fresh, at least "Interview" was. After "Interview," Rice seemed to be writing Harlequin Romance novels that simply supplanted vampires for real people.The film version of "Interview with a Vampire" was extremely true to the book and had a really good script, sets, and excellent actors - best of all - an excellent director. The film's most controversial casting was Tom Cruise as Lestat, but let's face it, the movie belonged to Brad Pitt and that movie loved him and he was perfect for it. Hollywood skipped "The Vampire Lestat" and moved on to "Queen of the Damned" for some reason. It should have left the rest of the "Vampire Chronicles" alone. "Interview..." did the job quite nicely and to revisit the subject with other actors, writers, and director was a bad move. The movie is no good. But why? It is faithful to the book on some key levels, but not in others. That's often to be expected. But why is it so bad? Even when Anne Rice wrote this book, her ideas were already dated. The idea that a vampire would be a rock star was old hat. While not directly addressed as such, the film: "The Lost Boys" all but made vampires rock stars - they certainly dressed and acted like them - in fact they were far more sinister than anything portrayed in this film. Then there's the whole bevy of recent films (The Brotherhood, etc.) that those low budget studios have cranked out where the vampires are heavy on (homo)sexuality and good looks. And finally, the whole subject of hip vampires has been completely (and much more effectively) addressed in the far more innovative and exciting television series: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." "Queen of the Damned" is not really a horrible film if you think of it as made for television, but when you realize that this thing got tossed around Hollywood as one of the next BIG films, you'll be amazed at the poor quality involved. The acting isn't bad and Stuart Townsend is a good choice for Lestat - but he's got that sort of generic "hot boy" look that so many of today's young actors have. Aaliyah (no disrespect meant to the dead) is no actor. She does her best, but her part was so poorly developed, we are not privy to the true intense evil that her character is to convey. Ultimately, I think I can expound on the reasons that "Interview with the Vampire" was a success and this film wasn't. "Interview" had the aforementioned cast, script, and actors, but it also had something that recent vampire films hadn't had: It was a period film. Dracula was a Transylvanian count and our rememberences of him are set in the 1930's. Movies about vampires up to the 1970's had always addressed vampires in a period manner. Beyond the 1970's several vampire films moved the action to the present and in doing so made the stories more accessible to a younger audience bored with black and white films and what they viewed as antiquated films. But everything that is old is new again and "Interview with the Vampire" moved the vampire film back to its "historical" roots and gave us a grand costume epic of vampiric scale. "Queen of the Damned" chose only to address the present and only skirted the period aspects of the story (granted I always thought the idea of an Egyptian vampire was beyond silly and was bored to death with the plotline in the novels). The trouble with "Queen" was that it was almost a Cliff's Notes version of the story actually written by Rice and the characters were so superficially written that it was impossible to know what was going on if you hadn't read the books. Why Anne Rice didn't kick up two times the fuss over this film that she did with "Interview" is beyond me. This film shouldn't have been made, but if it had to be made, it should have been much better given all the built-in hype that it had and the budget it should have and did command. Don't bother watching this movie - just look forward to new episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for much better writing, acting, and directing.
Rating: 
Summary: what is up with that?!
Review: i usually don't read much books, but when my cousin introduced me to Queen of the Damned i was kind of skeptical about reading it, but once i opened the book and read it i was attached to it and couldn't put it down. From then on i thought Ann Rice is one of the most awsome writers i truly enjoyed the book all the way. When I was inform that it was going to be made into a movie i was soo excited, but my blissful moment was soon to be destroyed once the movie started, it did not follow the book one bit. What the ... is up with Hollywood and Love stories?!! yo that was weak that they totally twisted the movie and turned it into a love story and compared to the book to the movie, the movie starts in the middle of the book. The characters are all way off by personality and on looks and some important actors are cut from the movie. But i give props to the action scenes cuz without it i prolly fall right to sleep.
Rating: 
Summary: Take it easy...
Review: I'm very upset at all the bad feedback and useless insults this is getting. I think this was a great movie, all in all. After all, you would never expect to turn J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings into an hour and something minute movie, so it's just as unfair to say that the makers of Queen of the Damned (the movie) did a horrible job creating a movie out of two large and detailed books. Anne Rice's narration, although absolutely lovely to read, isn't the best or the easiest type to transform into a movie. You have to hand it to the screenwriters because it's a hard job. Anyone who's read the Vampire Chronicles would know that the narration is one of the best parts of the book, but you can't expect someone to make a movie with it, unless you want cheezy flashbacks and stage smoke. I think the acting was very close to the characters they played (well, a lot of the characters were ignored as well, but honestly, it's only a 100 minutes!) and although the accents aren't well done (or existent, in Mr. Townsend's case) it fit the atmosphere of the movie. I agree with someone (I don't remember who it was who said it on these reviews) that this Lestat was better than Tom Cruise. In an Interview with a Vampire, Tom Cruise looked rather silly with bright blond hair and I'm glad they decided to let this Lestat have darker hair instead of looking very strange. I don't think this movie should get comments about him not having the right colourings because Akasha wasn't supposed to look like that, yet (the late) Aaliyah was cast for it. Jonathan Davis was a very good choice in the singing voice of Lestat and I think that it fits well with the movie. The gore wasn't necessarily excessive at all, although there is that scene with the heart which is kind of...creative (for lack of a better term). Anyways, the special effects were (in my opinion) very good and there was a lack of mindless exploding cars in which I am so grateful that I would buy this movie on that point alone. I am planning on buying this movie as soon as possible, and I encourage you to do it as well, or at least try it before you mock it.
Rating:
Summary: Guilty that I'm giving this trash even one star...
Review: I hated, hated, hated this movie. I hated the fact that the director and the writers didn't even bother to actually read the books on which it was based and at least try to make it seem as if it was the same story. I hated the fact that they followed up Neil Jordan's gothic masterpiece with a movie that has less substance than many of MTV's music videos which it so closely resembles. Why, in God's Name, why did they get Stuart Towshend to play Lestat? Lestat is supposed to be handsome, arrogant, dastardly evil and elegantly unwholesome. Tom Cruise brought him to life perfectly, Stuart only slithers around in black leather trying to look cool and looks ridiculous instead! If his Lestat ever cornered me in a dark corner I would probably die laughing before a single drop of my blood was sucked off. Marius is played by an actor that is the exact opposite of what Anne Rice described him as being and so is every actor in this movie in that matter...the Makeup is horrible, instead of making the vampires look seductively beautiful and marble white it made them look like drug addicts who haven't had too much sun. Whose idea was it to use Jonathan Davies' voice for Lestat's? That voice had me rolling in the aisles with agony. This movie was crash commercialism at its worst: it meshed two excellent books into a two hour movie to try to get as much "action" and "glitter" in the screen as it could and therefore get more money. Atmosphere, cinematography, acting, a haunting music score..these are all abandoned in order to make a movie for teenage girls whose Church is MTV's TRL. Without a doubt one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD MOVIE
Review: this was a good movie and to all of the people who write that they had doubts about this being a good movie cuz it didnt look like it had ne thing to do with the books then dont see it or dont write bout it cuz this is the kind of movie that people will see if they want to regardless of the reveiws people give
Rating: 
Summary: The movie is great, but the DVD is awful
Review: Thanks to whatever new anti-copy technology they're using to press this DVD, don't plan on playing it on anything other than a traditional DVD player. It won't play in an X-Box or PC-DVD drive.
Rating:
Summary: Egyptians Were Not Black
Review: Even African American authors have refuted the limp claim that ancient Egyptians were black. One African American writer refered to the theory as 'bad mythology'. Hence said, casting Aalliyah as QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (although she was great in the role) was just a politcally correct marketing scheme.
I mean, have some common sense for goodness sake. Who lives in Egypt? Egyptians. And they are not African. This theory is just like the Black Israelites who say they are the real Jews,
and that the race that calls themselves Jews are impostors. Baloney. It is a unfounded theory that has no basis in fact.
It is just an attempt by some who don't like their history to create a more pleasing one. Nice thinking but it can't change the facts of history.
Rating:
Summary: A Classy Telling
Review: Well, yes, it is not exactly what Ann Rice wrote, but that does not make this any less of a great movie. The acting is quite excellent and the story told is a gripping one. I would highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Adaptation
Review: I was excited that this book was going to be turned into a movie because I had started reading it and loved it. I finally saw the movie and it was completely off!And characters were missing.
Some scenes were really good like the one where Jessie was given the choice in becoming the vampire. But the death of Akasha was awful! That was the most ruined scene in the whole movie. UCK!
If they make another movie out of any of Anne Rice's books I pray that they read it and remember the plot and any other important facts so that another mishap like this doesn't happen.
But on a brighter note, the performances of Stuart Townshend and Aaliyah were great. And the songs that I heard were good. But you'd have to read reviews from people who actually heard both of the CD's to know if they're good or not.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, Stylish and Loud
Review: Queen Of The Damned as a movie will win no Oscars, but that doesn't mean that it isn't great. It's Fun and campy in a way, it has a Rocky Horror vibe and the films music really sets a mood. Stuart Townsend plays an excellent Lestat, and Vincent Perez as Marius is a delite to watch. The DVD however features excellent extras including 3 full music videos shot for the movie by the actors. I only wish music videos where so creatively and artistically done for television. It is interesting to compare the one real music video by Static X to the 3 done for the film which are much superior. There are 2 documentrys about the making of Damned one about the musical process, featuring interviews with the various artists that contributed to the soundtrack, which gives you a look inside the recording studio and how the score of the film was made. The second documentry focuses on the Vampire special effects, specifically the use of wires and suspension cables, and an in depth look at the concert sequence, one of the more memorable moments of the film. There is also a brief tribute to Aaliyah, featuring Stuart Townsend(Lestat), Michael Rymer(Director), and her brother among others involved in production. This film is destined to be a cult classic for many reasons evident when watching the movie, but most of all because of Aaliyah's performance, which is haunting and chilling. Her presence fills the screen and it is completely evident from the film that she was destined to be great, it is truely tragic that she only had such a short time. The film provoked resonses of overwhelming love, or overwhelming hate from most people, and any film that can provoke such hightend feelings is one not to be missed whether you loved it or hated it.
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