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 The second movie based on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series (after 1994's Interview with the Vampire) features Stuart Townsend as the legendary vampire Lestat, who awakens from a decades-long slumber to become a fast-livin' rock star! Lestat's jams in turn awaken the ancient Akasha (played by the recently deceased Aaliyah), the queen of all vampires, who tries to make Lestat her king. But not if a pretty young vampire hunter has her way with him first... |
| Queen of the Damned
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ABOUT 'DAMNED' TIME Aaliyah's return to the big screen was halted by her early death
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Maybe in a few years, when the memory of Aaliyah's plane-crash death is not so fresh, Queen of the Damned won't feel so ghoulish. Maybe in a few years the incoherent gaudiness of this underperforming sequel to ''Interview With A Vampire'' (adapted from ''The Vampire Chronicles'' by Anne Rice) will have transmuted into a kind of appreciable camp. Until that time, however, we're stuck with this damned production, in which the late pop star (21 years old at the time) plays Akasha, an ancient but eternally youthful-looking, green-eyed vampire queen who's been waiting for the right moment to break out of her crypt and party hearty on Earth.
What gets her undead blood pulsing, apparently, is the sexy rock-star lures of the Vampire Lestat, pop literature's reigning bloodsucker, who, having originally been played with a modicum of charisma by Tom Cruise, is now filled out by Stuart Townsend, a far less compelling, mannequin-like British actor. (His previous hard-breathing attempt at smoldering was opposite Kate Hudson in the dull romantic comedy ''About Adam.'') There's an astute joke in the notion of a modern-day rock star who's also a bloodsucker, and about the ritualistic aspects of fandom frenzy. But Australian director Michael Rymer doesn't trust laughs -- and doesn't conjure proper respect for followers of the whole dead-undead genre, who deserve more from a vampire pic than a few shrieky special effects. C- |
Our Review:
Well, it's loud. But even the ear-bleeding heavy-rock soundtrack can't cover up the sucking sound of a toothless vampire flick that never should've seen the light of day. (Too bad the early rumors that this adaptation of the popular Anne Rice novel was going straight to video weren't true.) Stuart Townsend--hardly a replacement for Tom Cruise and looking primed for the next Crow sequel--is the vampire Lestat, taking a bite of the modern world as lead singer of a popular goth-metal band. Revealing secrets of the undead to the media, he ticks off other batty bloodsuckers and awakens the queen mother, Aaliyah. Many neck holes and plot holes later, they all have a big sucky showdown, and, frankly, it's hard to give a damn. Aaliyah fans will be disappointed, as the late singer's not so sizable role consists mostly of her undulating across shoddy sets. The rest of us will be biting mad, because this movie doesn't just suck, it blows.
Queen of the Damned
Feb. 12, 2002
By David Hunter
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| One of the most ambitious vampire movies since Warner Bros.' "Interview With the Vampire" and likewise adapted from best-selling author Anne Rice's series "The Vampire Chronicles," "Queen of the Damned" features the late singer-actress Aaliyah in the title role as a sexy, not-to-be-messed-with ancient who comes to life in turn-of-the-millennium America.
Directed with goth pizzazz and brains by Michael Rymer ("Perfume"), the film premiered Sunday at the closing night of the 2002 Hollywood Black Film Festival. Preceded that evening by a short tribute to Aaliyah Dana Haughton, who was posthumously awarded the fest's first Inspirational Spirit Award, the loud and entertaining "Queen" could rule the boxoffice when it opens Feb. 22.
While one watches her scenes in the latter half of the film with admiration for Aaliyah's charisma and team spirit (all those bloody-fanged smiles, the skimpy Egyptian costumes), there's a whiff of real sadness to a scenario that is preoccupied with the loneliness of the immortal undead. But it's also a little camp around the edges, and one doesn't have to be a Rice fan to follow the vampire histrionics, of which "Queen" has more than its share.
The heavy metal music-fueled blood fest actually centers on Rice's charismatic rebel vamp Lestat (Stuart Townsend of "About Adam") and a fetching investigator of the paranormal, Jessie (Marguerite Moreau of "Wet Hot American Summer"). With Aaliyah not appearing in full glory until 50 minutes into "Queen," the often-narrated story follows Jessie's learning about Lestat's past after he wakes up from a self-imposed slumber and becomes a major pop star.
Indeed, devilish Lestat calls himself a vampire and almost overtly goes about his natural routine, knowing that he will anger all the other vampires who strictly adhere to a code of silence. Thousands of years old and infamous for drinking rivers of blood, Akasha (Aaliyah) is the "mother" of all the vamps and has the ability to burn them (and mere mortals) into blobs of molten matter.
The plot and many characters of "Queen" get a bit complicated. But Jessie's fascination with New Orleans-based Lestat makes sense when it becomes clear that her aunt (Lena Olin) is a vampire. Vincent Perez is Marius, whom we see "make" Lestat in a period flashback and who keeps track of Akasha in statue form. There is much jumping around in time until awakened Akasha starts to show off her power, leading to a climactic rock concert in Death Valley that turns into a vampire slaughter.
The costumes -- Aaliyah is adorned in headdresses, shell skirts and gold-plated bodices -- and special effects are major elements in the film's most crowd-pleasing moments. With a blistering heavy rock soundtrack and several original songs by Jonathan Davis (lead singer of Korn) and Richard Gibbs that are performed by Lestat and his band, "Queen" is a change of pace for Rymer, and the widescreen production shows affection for the genre and some respect for the viewer.
From:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/reviews/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1329395
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