Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Okay, why did I see this movie? Oh right, it's my friend's fault! I had full intention of seeing Dragonfly this past Friday; however, upon arriving at the movie theater, my friend let out a gasp.
"What's wrong?" I ask
"Queen of the Damned is out!" She exclaimed. "We must see it!"
Now, I hadn't put much thought into this movie at all, I barely even knew that it existed. However, it was about vampires, Anne Rice is cool, and Interview With a Vampire is one of my favorite movies....so why not?

Here's a helpful tip for you

If you're heading out to the movies and your friend suddenly gasps, "Queen of the Damned is out!"...smack
them...hard. Trust me, they will thank you later.

I will now continue

The movie begins in a very promising...er..creepy way. The camera pans around this New Orleans, above ground cemetary with voice over from Lestat the vampire. Apparently good ol' Lestat has been sleeping for 100 years and he's decided to awake because now with all the goth and hard rock mentality floating around in the world, he finally feels like he can fit in...silly, eh? Wait..it gets sillier. Lestat finds this pitiful little garage band and takes them under his wing...or cape, becoming the lead singer and writer, while they become his backup.

For some unknown reason they soar to the top and Lestat finally gets the attention he's been desiring since he became a vampire and was forced to go into hiding. Lestat decides to get obnoxious and spills the beans to the entire world that he is in fact a vampire...that was a mistake. Of course, the general public sees this as nothing more than a gimmick, but the vampires of the world are slightly upset, being as how Lestat has disobeyed the most basic and improtant rule of vampirehood. No one must ever know that you are a vampire.

Then comes in the sweet, young, innocent girl who desires to know more about Lestat and vampires. She reads Lestat's journal which takes the movie goer back into Lestat's past, and how Marius made Lestat...and how Lestat discovered the Queen of the Damned...and she was all evil down in Egypt back in her hayday, and now she's a living statue waiting to be set free...blah..blah..blah..

Well, as you can imagine, the nasty Queen is released from her statue prison. She comes to make Lestat her King, since she killed her previous King...and then..well..all Hell breaks loose...or it tries to anyway. The whole plot is never really defined in this movie, there are a lot of holes, and a lot of things that don't seem to make much sense. I've given up trying to figure it out...it's probably not possible anyway. However, I now have the desire to read the book, in hopes that I will finally understand.

A few of my general impressions

First off, casting for Lestat was terrible. I don't know the guys name...but come on? I'm sorry, but Tom Cruise was a much better Lestat. Also, this new Lestat is nothing like the old character. Am I missing something, I thought Lestat was a ruthless, unremorsefull villan? In this movie, his deeper, human side shows too much...he's not suppose to be nice...is he?

Next, the acting was less than good...it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. Also, I never understood why the lead female character, Jesse, wanted to know what it was like to be a vampire. Another thing, the love connection between Jesse and Lestat wasn't played out enough, I wasn't even sure that they were suppose to be in love until the end, and I'm still not entirely sure. Plus, the whole rock star thing was just way too cheesy.

There were a few good things about the movie though. I was amazed by Aaliyah's ability to be so creepy. I had this image in my head of this sweet little innocent pop singer. How could someone like that portray someone so evil as the Queen of the Damned? Well, let me tell you, she certainly freaked the hell out of me!! She didn't do a lot of talking, but there was no need. She stalked around all slow and creepy, incredible acting. I'm not just bragging on her because of her recent passing either, she really was the highlight of the movie. I feel really bad though that this was the last thing to have her name on it...this is no way to go out.

Also, there were some cool effects, I've seen a lot better, but these were very good. There's one scene where Marius is making Lestat and he flys at his neck from across the room to stop Lestat from escaping. Very involving scene and very scary, great effects here as well.

Overall

Don't waste your money to see this in the theater, but maybe you might want to consider renting it if there's nothing else. I'm a little dissappointed in Anne Rice. If the book is as cheesy as the movie, I just have one question...what happened? Interview With a Vampire was so cool and scary, with a great story behind it. Queen of the Damned has a lame story, isn't scary, and is basically a bomb. All things considered, you have to realize that it's just a silly vampire movie...how shocking!

My rating

I gave the movie two stars because I like Aaliyah's acting, and there were decent effects. However, those were the only good things about it.

Recommended: No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age