Queen of the Damned
Starring: Aaliyah, Vincent Perez
Movie adaptation of Anne Rice's nove; of the same name.
Reviewed by Sean Thompson

As an avid fan of Anne Rice's books (including her Sleeping Beauty and
Mayfair Witches series), I looked forward with much anticipation to the
theatrical version of Queen of the Damned. Alas, I did not get the chance
to see it in the theater, thus was I forced to wait until this past week
for the DVD release. Now, you must understand that I was one of many
thousands of Anne Rice fans who looked upon Tom Cruise's casting as The
Vampire Lestat in Interview With The Vampire with much dread. It was
Hollywood kow-towing to the prospect of making loads of money by placing a
big-name actor in an odd and rather cult-like role. However, I have to
admit that the storyline followed the book fairly close (except for
Antonio Banderas' turn as Armand - he was so completely miscast) and Tom
Cruise pulled off the role quite well - Brad Pitt's pouting and posing
aside. I first read about Queen of the Damned coming to the big screen well over a year ago and approached it with much trepidation. Not one of
the actors from Interview came back, despite their roles being reprised in
the book version. While relative newcomer Stuart Townsend did an admirable
turn as Lestat in Queen, the movie suffers from too many script changes
from the book. Characters familiar to fans have been altered significantly
(Vincent Perez - remember him from a horrid turn in The Crow: City of
Angels) as Marius? He doesn't even remotely resemble the part, not to
mention the sharp departure from the original storyline by making him
Lestat's creator. This was truly awful writing on somebody's part. Lena
Olin looks confused in her role as Maharet (and where is her twin sister
from the book, the one who actually destroys Akasha?), but is tolerable
given her brief screen time. Otherwise, no other name actors would tread
near this script. It is so far removed from the original story as to be a
completely different thing altogether, with various smaller storylines
lost which actually served to explain more to the reader about the origins
of the vampires, who the oldest were, why Akasha (played with much
enthusiasm by the late Aaliyah) poses such a threat to human and vampire
alike, etc., etc. Anne Rice took the time to construct complicated
characters who live complicated lives, to weave a romance into their
lamented conditions, to find beauty in the most horrible of existences.
The movie version essentially caters to the lowest common denominator
(read: GHETTO), overlaying the movie with new music to distract the
audience (the soundtrack is actually the best thing about this flick),
showing just enough skin to be titillating - but not enough to truly
interest jaded viewers such as your humble reviewer here - and special
effects which do nothing more than to make you remember, "Oh yeah...this
is a movie about vampires." To sum up: I was very disappointed. Even the
"extras" included in the DVD release could not sate my own blood thirst.
Bottom line: If you are 21 years or younger and have never read the books
(or have only read one), you will probably dig this film (sorry for the
subtle insults, darlings, but you have much to learn yet......). If you
are more experienced in your movie watching, avoid this one like the
steaming pile of ass that it is.