Rating: Summary: shelovesarmand Review: boy is every anne rice fan angry! i just saw this movie overseas and as the storyline began to unfold, i admit i was absolutely horrified! they mangled the crap out of this thing. stuart townsend - a brown eyed lestat - inconceivable! (he grows on you later, although i'm not sure why) lestat is boisterous, has an aristocratic air about him, sense of humor, and is a compassionate being, who kills criminals and the like only. i was irritated that they portrayed him as a low life, shallow, and unpredictable killer (the thing with the groupies, so not lestat - he'd never touch em)and a hideous accent or whatever that was, it was way too fake. I take offense that they would so stray from lestat, above all others. and don't get me started on vincent perez as marius, its insane. aaliyah looked good as akasha but rather like an ornament, the writers didn't do justice to the true depth of akasha in this film. and why oh why is everyone old in this film? pandora is not supposed to be old and wise, she's young and wise as is maharet.so basically they mangled it, its all wrong and louis and armand should absolutely be in the film. but at the same time these books are rather detailed and they'd need an 8 hour miniseries to introduce each character and add in all of their storylines as well. about half way through the film i stopped comparing it to anne rice's book and simply began to enjoy it as a film and decided i liked it. i enjoyed the girl that plays jesse, she brought a nice human element to the film -sensual innocence . i intend to get the dvd, like i said, stuart townsend grew on me......
Rating: Summary: A Let Down Review: I'm very sad to have to write this review. If you are a fan Anne Rice, and her beautifully written books then you don't need to see this movie in fact you'll be very disappointed if you do. First it takes us from Interview with the Vampire and completely skips over The Vampire Lestat, which gives you a much better history of who and what Lestat is and his motivations in doing what he's supposed to be doing in this movie. This movie tries unsucessfully to give you history on Lestat while ignoring who The Queen of the Damned is. The history on Lestat is completely differnt from the one in the books by the way. And she comes off in this movie as a one dimentional villian, which if you've read the book is so far from what she was intended to be. In the book you get a complete history of who Akahsa is. The movie ignores her husband Enkil, and changes way too much of Lestat's history so that he is baerly reconginzable from the vampire in the Interview with a Vampire. Aaliyah, and Stuart Townsend do the best they can with what they are given which isn't much. Old favorites who are in the book are no where to be seen in this movie, such as Armand, or Louis. We are never introduced to Lestat's mother Gabreille, or Mael, or Santano, or even Pandora. The vempire Marius is completely unrecongzable from the book, and his history with Lestat is distorted and has been completely changed. Who would believe Marius is supposed to have been a well educated, sophisticated, and noble Roman who was in his forties when he was made, and had long blonde hair. This movie is no where nearly as good as it could have been. The time and effort taken to write and produce Interview with the Vampire is sorely lacking here. Granted they didn't get everything right in that movie either, but at least they stayed within the heart of the book. I'm sorry to say this movie doesn't do that. Anne Rice's material deserved better and so did the late Aaliyah. If you wanted to buy this in order to remember her contribution to the arts, you'd be better off saving your money and going to a record store and buying one of her CD's, or go out and buy Romeo Must Die, in which she was a fully realized character and gives the viewer a better representaion of what she was capable of, of the potential lost, and what we as a viewing audience lost when her plain when down.
Rating: Summary: Lestat's Interview Review: This movie was not supposed to be a sequel! This movie was told from Lestat's point of view and Interview with the Vampire was told from Louis. It's obvious, and the fact that the two movies are completely opposite just drives the stake home. Lestat and Louis each see Lestat in a different way, have different knowledge of him. This movie was fabulous for just acknowledging that difference, but the music was also incredible.
Rating: Summary: Where's Aaliyah? Review: I am not really a vampire-movie/anne rice fan, but i did enjoy this one. The biggest disappointment that i experienced, however, was that lack of Aaliyah. They played the movie up so you would think she had the lead role in it because she died- she was featured on the poster and all that. Her role was an important one in the movie but she didn't even appear until at least half way into the movie! And she didn't really talk, she used her "slithery" voice. My "high expectations" were that she would be the main person in this movie...It's cool that she did a movie before she died, but a bigger part would've been nice.
Rating: Summary: Horrible Adaption of the Book, Otherwise, Not a Bad Movie Review: Anne Rice has been my favorite author for as long as I can remember, so when I read that they were turning another one of her books into a movie, I was truly excited, yet instantly wary. Just the obvious fact that they went from Interview to Queen, skipping the middleman (Vampire Lestat) was a warning. Yet I went to the theater, plunked down my five dollars, and spent the next couple of hours, as I'm sure most other Anne Rice fans did, in hell. Grossly obvious mistakes (such as Lestat's maker) made me wonder if the screen writer or any other member of the crew had even bothered to read the book or The Vampire Chronicles itself in the first place. After walking out of the theater, I was so angry at the [translation] of such an amazing novel that I didn't even know where to begin in my criticism. I'm by no means a person who gets easily upset (especially by something as trivial as a film), but to put it bluntly, they slaughtered the book, seemingly taking the character's names and then doing whatever they wanted with them with no regards to the actual plot of the book. However, if one can overlook the fact the movie was a terrible adaption and look at it in terms of just a regular film, then my criticism becomes a little less harsh! Amazing special effects and dazzling performances by Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend make this movie worth the 2 stars I gave it. An unbelievble soundstrack compliments the film, and a very well-placed and appropriate Jonathan Davis cameo lightens the film's somber mood. While it was a horrible adaption, as movie, it stands in it's own right. Anyone who has not read the books will probably enjoy it. Worth seeing, just don't go into with any great expectations.
Rating: Summary: Garbage, but with some cool music videos Review: Like many of the reviewers here, I am an Anne Rice fan. However, I knew that there were going to be liberties taken and was comfortable with them. I mean, few of the "Dracula" movies throughout the years have had anything to do with Bram Stoker's novel. All I wanted - and expected - was a flashy, no substance guilty pleasure movie, a la "Dracula 2000." That alone should tell you my expectations. But QotD failed even as a guilty pleasure. The storyline didn't make a lot of sense when taken on it's own, and the acting was bad to bland. I also take issue with the badly-done look of the vampires. Rice's vampires are supposed to be beautiful, whereas this bunch looked like Eurotrash or people at a Halloween spook house. However, one good thing about this movie is the music videos for Lestat. SInce the videos are included on the DVD, I give it 2 - instead of 1 - stars.
Rating: Summary: Pretty OK (as long you don't compare it with IWTV) Review: If you have read the book, as I have, OF COURSE you're going to be disappointed. The book tells (as always) a much deeper and thorough story. But, if you can look past that, and just see it as a movie on its own, it is actually rather enjoyable to see! Plus, it's got a killer soundtrack. (I haven't seen the DVD yet, but every DVD I have seen with DTS sound has great sound.) Townsend is ok as Lestat (Cruise was better), and Aaliyah makes a nice blood-queen. I just wish that Louis could have made an appearance. :)
Rating: Summary: Good movie, but not as good as the book. Review: Being a Vampire Chronicles fan as well as a Korn fan made this movie awesome for me. Yes, the book has more detail, characters, and story line. But for those people that never read any of the books it is entertaining and easy to understand. Hearing Jonathan Davis's voice blaring when Lestat sang gave me chills. The soundtrack has the same songs, but sung by different people. Trust me it is good. The different people include Wayne Static, Marilyn Manson, Chester from Linkin Park, and Jay from Orgy. I pre-ordered the dvd and can't wait to see it and crank it up!
Rating: Summary: Queen of the Damned movie Review: When I went to go see this movie in theaters, I left really really liking it. And at that time the only book from the Vampire Chronociles that I had read was Interview With A Vampire, which I really liked. Having liked QotD, I decided that I would pick up a copy of the next book in the series, the Vampire Lestat. I quickly finished the book and traveled on to QotD. After finishing that, I thought back on the movie and looked at some of the cast members who played major parts. Well at least the ones that did in the book, but were not included in the movie. My main problem with the movie is the casting. They did a HORRIBLE job casting the people. Im not saying that the actors that were chosen were not good actors, its just that they were not an acurate portrayal of the rich characters that Anne has introduced us to. Maharet wasn't[ messed]up too bad, but I thought her look a bit younger. Khayman does not look a thing like we were lead to believe he was! I can't decide if Khayman was portrayed worst of if it was Pandora. I didn't like the choice of actress for the like second we see of Pandora in the movie. She is my probably my favorite character in the chronicles. I was also puzzled at the decision to leave Mekare out of the movie. Now seeing the movie without reading the book, you don't know what your missing, but after you read the book, you can't help but feel a little cheated by her exclusion. Now, let me compliment the movie. I really enjoyed Aaliyah's perrformance of Akasha. I thought she did an excellent job. Also, Stuart Townsend did a fabulous job of playing Lestat, to me he plays a more convincing Lestat than Tom Cruise did. And the Soundtrack is one of my favorite soundtracks ever. So, the movie was very good if you haven't read the books. However, if you have you might feel a little cheated. I plan on purchasing the DVD when it comes out, because I still enjoyed it with its horrible casting and exclusion of major plot things.
Rating: Summary: A Disgrace to the Books Review: I truly love Anne Rice as an author; her books are wonderful with great plots and even better characters...however, this movie just trashed it all! Every character in this movie was made to appear one-dimensional as was the story. Also, the acting was stale, not that they had much to work with since the screen play was even more atrocious. Aaliyah was decent, I am willing to admit that, but I pray that if they make another movie of the Vampire Chronicles, they ditch Townsend who just shot Lestat's character to dust. There is so much more to Lestat than blood and death; there is love and sensuality and appreciation for life and humans. What happened to our more realistic "Interview with the Vampire" Lestat? Next time, please let Anne Rice write the screen play!
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