Brilliant and touching

Better Late Then Never

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

How could a movie with such high production values get so much wrong? 1. With exceptions of Mahatet and Akasha, the entire cast was, well, miscast! Lestat is constantly described by Anne Rice as tall (got that right), with long full blonde hair (oops!), and was French (oops again!) Lestat was turned into a vampire not by Marius, who was described as being very tall (oops!), with long flowing blonde hair - the Kelts that kidnapped him in the book kept him captive until his hair grew long. He was the illegitimate son of an Italian father by a Keltic slave woman. 2. Lestat was actually turned into a vampire by an old (as on he was old when he stole the blood from a vampire to make himself immortal) vampire, told Lestat a few basic things, gave him his wealth and a tower in Paris, then promptly killed himself by going into a fire. Lestat was now alone in Paris, having traveled there with the son of a rich merchant neighbor, Nicolo, who played the violin. 3. Lestat learned to love and play the violin, not from a random gypsy he met on a beach, but from watching and listening to his beloved childhood friend, Nicolo. 4. Lestat met Marius, not on an island as the vampire who brought Lestat immortality, but in Egypt, where Lestat had eventually wandered with Gabrielle, his mother, whom he had rescued from near death from consumption, turning her into a vampire as his companion. 5. Akasha was killed, not by Maharet drinking the last of her blood after Akasha had been drained by the other vampires at Maharet's compound, butby Maharet's tongueless, mute twin sister, Mekare, who tore Akasha's head off, taking the demon spirit into herself, not into Maharet. I can understand changing around a few things in a movie to make the plot run more smoothly, but to get so many things completely wrong, is just plain wrong! Blonde hair versus dark brown hair may not sound like much, but Lestat was known to be very vain about his appearance, and big brautiful fluffy long hair seems right - aside from the fact that Tom Cruise had long blonde hair in the prequel to this (albeit he was almost half a foot shorter than Stuart Townsend), and I doubt that list start would have died his hair brown every morning after having had blonde hair for so long! Another messed up element is one of Lestat's sidekicks, Louis, who was nowhere to be found in this movie. In her book, Anne Rice had Louis spend the night before the concery with the band at Lestat's secure compound in Carmel, California, and rode with them to the concert, which took place not in Death Valley but in San Framcisco. In her book, Marius is described as being of a towering height due to his Keltic forbears, even taller than Lestat's described 6 foot height. I don't know who wrote the script, but it wasn't Anne Rice...at times the actors seem to be speaking lines straight out of a bad soap opera. The movie us, at times, a fun one, but it would have been 10 times better had the scriptwriter kept to the story and to Anne Rice's characterizations. I was expecting so much more, but I was truly disappointed!

This film tried to be an adaptation of two Anne Rice's books that portrayed the life of Lestat, the vampire. Thus, the film shows his birth to the world of vampires and his connection with the vampire queen Akasha, who awakens from a secular sleep.It is, in theory, the continuation of the movie "Interview with the Vampire", although there is no connection between these two productions (remember that Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt starred in these film, which was a huge success). So, who expects "Queen of the Damned" will also be great is going to have a big disappointment. In fact, it's the worst vampire movies I've ever seen, sacrificing the dramatic and psychological depth of the characters in favor of a pop-rock approach of the vampire world, which seems to have been thought to sell the film to the teen audiences and not to make it better.Directed by Michael Rymer, this film has an unfortunate and shameful script by Scott Abbott and stars the singer Aaliyah (deceased shortly after the shootings) and Stuart Townsend in the lead roles. Despite this stars, the film goes from the grotesque to the comic, depicting the teenagers like a bunch of mentally retarded with serious identity affirmation problems. Ah, of course: if you read Rice's books, forget them. This movie failed to portray the books or his essence. Basically, it's a different story whit characters with the same names of the Rice's books. A shame, a tragedy: the great victim of this film's vampires was Anne Rice's stories.

Queen of the Damned is a 2002 vampire horror film and a loose adaptation of the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, The Queen of the Damned, although the film contains many plot elements from the latter novel's predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. It stars Aaliyah as the vampire queen Akasha, and Stuart Townsend as the vampire Lestat. Queen of the Damned was released six months after Aaliyah's death and is dedicated to her memory.Vampire Lestat is awakened from decades of slumber by the sound of a heavy metal band which he proceeds to take over as the lead singer. Achieving international success and planning a massive live concert, Lestat is approached by Marius, and warned that the vampires of the world will not tolerate his flamboyant public profile.Jesse Reeves, a researcher for the paranormal studies group Talamasca, is intrigued by Lestat's lyrics and tells the rest of the group her theory that he really is a vampire. Her mentor, David Talbot, takes her aside and tells her they know he is and that a vampire called Marius made him. He also shows her Lestat's journal that he recovered and is now in the Talamasca library. In a flashback to his origins, Lestat recalls how he awoke Akasha, the first vampire, with his music. Jesse tracks him down to a London vampire club where he saves and confronts her. She later goes to Los Angeles for the concert and gives him back his journal. The two spend some time together and Lestat shows her both the horrors and the perks of being a vampire. Showing him that she's not scared of him Jesse stays with Lestat as she sees how lonely and miserable he is. She asks him to turn her as she reveals that it's her dream to be a vampire, but he refuses as he won't do it to her. The more time they spend together, the closer they become and soon Lestat and Jesse start to fall in love. Meanwhile Akasha is awakened by Lestat's new music. She arrives and torches the club, and all the vampires inside, who want Lestat dead.At the concert in Death Valley, a mob of vampires attack Lestat and Marius. Akasha bursts through the stage and takes Lestat with her as her new King. The two vampires then proceed to have a sort of sexual intercourse in Akasha's home where they mutually feed on one another. During which time Lestat becomes spellbound by Akasha and is forced to obey her. Empowered by Akasha's blood, Lestat and the Queen confront the Ancient Vampires at the home of Maharet, Jesse's aunt, who is an Ancient Vampire. The Ancient Vampires were planning to kill Akasha, to save the human world from demise. Akasha then commands Lestat to kill Jesse as The Queen sees her both as an enemy and as food as she is Maharet's mortal niece and Maharet is a big enemy of Akasha's. Queen Akasha also wanted to make an example out of Jesse because Jesse dared to stand-up to her and to put fear into the other vampires. Lestat ostensibly obeys the Queen, but afterwards he quickly comes to his senses and is released from her power. He then very angrily turns and begins to drain Akasha's blood with the help of the Ancients. Mael and Pandora are killed by Akasha's power. Armand is almost killed, but is saved as The Queen's powers diminish. Maharet is the last to drink Akasha's blood, and thereby ends up becoming a marble "statue". Maharet then becomes the new Queen Of the Damned.Lestat then turns and walks to where Jesse is lying lifeless, and cradling her in his arms, gives her his blood, turning her into a vampire. Jesse, now a vampire, and Lestat then return the journal to the Talamasca, and walk away, among mortals, into the night. As they exit it is shown that they are now a couple and hold hands while Marius enters the Talamasca. The film closes with a scene of David reading the journal as Marius's voice catches his attention, cheerfully saying, "Hello, David."

This movie was so different from the books that I didn't get hung up on how it deviated from Rice's vision. I just enjoyed the visuals, the music, the actors. Just shows how subjective the art form is. After seeing it ten or fifteen times, the plot made perfect sense to me. I'm a rock musician and the notion of a vampire using rock to reconnect with humans and upset his own breed resonated with me. I like this Lestat better than Tom Cruise's, and Marius almost steals the movie for me. Aliyah's scene in the vampire bar (slinky!) and the concert are visually stunning. And the cinematography takes full advantage of the many interesting faces. Not quite Eisenstein, but effective. Anyway, I liked it, and enjoy it almost as much with the sound off.