Queen
of the Damned
Review
by : Gareth
Von Kallenbach 
Starring:
Stuart Townsend (Lestat), Marguerite Moreau
(Jesse), Aaliyah (Queen Akasha)
Written by: Anne Rice and Scott Abbott
Directed by: Michael Rymer
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The tragic death of a film's star has often helped the box
office draw. One only has to look at the openings of "The
Crow" and "Brainstorm" following the death of their stars
Brandon Lee and Natalie Wood. Hollywood is not always known
for being a sensitive and understanding industry, so the recent
release of "Queen of the Damned" has raised some eyebrows
in film circles. For those who are not familiar with the story,
the film is based on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, which
became the film "Interview with a Vampire". The sequel picks
up with the Vampire Lestat (Stuart Townsend), who has awakened
from a decades-long sleep to become of all things, a rock
musician. The film then flashes back in time to Lestat's early
years as a vampire and his training under his master Marius
(Vincent Perez). During his training, Lestat learns about
the Queen of the Damned named Akasha and discovers that she
possessed absolute power, and like himself, a thirst to not
hide her existence and true nature from the world.
If you
are not confused yet, do not worry, it gets worse. There is
also a scholar named Jesse (Margurite Moreau) who is like
a vampire groupie and seeks to learn all she can from Lestat.
Lestat also has his career to think about and a pending concert
in Death Valley takes up most of his time. The fact that every
vampire on the planet wants to bleed him dry for exposing
them and their secrets in his lyrics is of little concern
to him.
What follows
is an extremely boring and uninspired collection of scenes
with little to no cohesion to them. The weak plot is made
worse by acting that is stiffer then the corpses in the film
and accents that seem to be inspired by Saturday morning cartoons.
Further hindering the film is a total lack of chemistry amongst
the cast. Lines and deliveries elicited groans from the audience
at my screener.
The tragic
thing about this film is not that I had to sit through it;
it is the way the filmmakers have decided to exploit the late
singer Aaliyah in the films publicity. She is front and center
on all adds for the film, but has less than 15 minutes of
screen time. This has caused some outrage as the tagline "All
She Wants Is Hell On Earth" is not in the best of taste regarding
an individual who passed tragically and recently. The film
had supposedly been sitting waiting to be released, and a
direct to video release seemed likely. Sadly, it seems that
someone thought they could make a buck from releasing one
of Aaliyah's last works and have given audiences a film that
is not only insensitive to her passing, but is a film that
is easily one of the worst I have seen. Tom Cruise had the
good sense to stay away from reprising his role of Lestat
in this film, and audiences should demand this film be buried
never to see the light of day again.
Gareth
Von Kallenbach
gareth@nwlink.com
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