Queen of the Damned (2002)

   
Directed by: Michael Rymer

Written by: Scott Abbott & Michael Petroni

Starring:

Aaliyah .... Queen Akasha
Stuart Townsend ....
Lestat de Lioncourt
Marguerite Moreau .... Jessica Jesse Reeves
Vincent Perez .... Marius de Romanus
Paul McGann .... David Talbot
Lena Olin .... Maharet

Release Dates: Hollywood Black Film Festival: February 10, 2002; Theatrical: February 22, 2002

*Images courtesy at: www.outnow.ch

 

 

Rating:

 

Many fans come to see this rock star Lestat de Lioncourt (Stuart Townsend) perform or do conventions. There's even groupies who's want to make love to him which would be the thrill of their lives but he seems to be ghungry for human blood. It started centuries ago when he met up with a person Marius De Romanus (Vincent Perez) in the UK who made him a vampire and through the centuries he has been feasting on people.
Lestat meets up with an inno cent looking woman Jessica Reeves (Marguerite Moreau) who seems interested in his lifestyle but she is one time tomented by other vampires when she enters a lounge but he comes to her rescue.
Lestat also is desired by the vampiress of the damned Queen Akasha (Aaliyah) as she tempts him to be with her plus she is incredibly invincible. She also wants him to kill Jessica and he's at a state on whether to kill Jessica or betray Akasha which can be dangerous and cause him his life if he does so.

 

We have a nice take on Lestat de Lioncourt exposing his fangs while talking behind a screen to a couple of people showing close up shots asking him questions.
A nice scene with Lestat acting charming and soothing towards two groupies and then good shots on him climbing up on walls like a spider as well as going in for an attack showing his fangs.
A nice shot on Marius de Romanus by opening his mouth to show his fangs and bites the back of Lestat's neck which looked good as well as him acting hungry for blood showing good energy and sucking on Marius' arm when he eventually gets stern on him to tell him to stop which also looked well done too.
There's good discussion between the two of them walking along a beach experiencing the first night as a vampire. We spot a nice scene with Lestat jamming with a couple of musicians playing a violin and guitar as well as a nice close up shot on him playing his violin fast and showing a nice evil expression with both of them looking frightened.
A great distance shot on him playing a violin at a temple with a statue placed there and then him talking to the statue with neat effects Queen Akasha appearing briefly instead of the statue as well as a good shot on Lestat looking at the hands of the statue and then drinking the blood of it with a nice close up shot on his eyes turning red as well as some effective shots on Akasha with a red light on her.
A good camera shot luring in an alleyway of a mansion and closing in on Lestat in his coffin.
We spot a nice slow motion shot on Jessica Jesse Reeves walking in a bar with shots on club vampires suddenly staring at her when she walks past them as well as crowding her to check her out which looked a bit spooky as well as them terrorising her in the corner street showing good paced energy.
We spot many great discussions between Lestat and Jessica with him tempting to suck her blood and her acting stand offish about it all.
A nice shot on Akasha strutting in the bar and then battling everyone there as it looked very fast paced with excellent shots and good special effects. Plus we see nice firy shots on the outside door of the bar.
A nice distant shot with a bunch of cars and people out in a deserted area going to a concert.
There's a great moment with Lestat on stage with the shots on the crowd going wild as well as some heavy battles with other vampires trying to attack. We have a good camera shot on the stage exploding with Akasha rising up and taking him.
A nice shot on him in a bathtub with red type flower pedals in the water and then her underneath touching him and then rising up speaking coldly and lustfully towards him.
A nice moment with Akasha acting forceful towards Lestat and demanding him to kill his mistress and alot of tense battling moments happening which was nicely choreographed.
Bottom line is that this was a very well done flick as at first I didn't know that this was a sequel to Interview with a Vampire and almost thought it was a tribute to it. It was very neat seeing a vampire performing heavy metal music and showing the history of him. I loved the scenery in it showing a vampire lounge and spotting the lifestyles on all of them as well as spotting the queen of vampires since we never find out on how these vampires came to be. However, the chemistry on this story based on the Vampire Chronicles isn't as good as the original since we mainly see vampires battling one another and rock music with not as much dialogues going on like in the original flick. But again, most sequels are like that. It's still a good flick regardless. There's more special effects in this sequel which the CGI work was nicely done.

The actors did their job very well as it's interesting to see Stuart Townsend (Lestat de Lioncourt) as a rock n roll vampire and can pull off a rock image just as good as his legendary guitarist father. He shows a good attitude with his cold speaking and shows nice intensity for his hunger on human blood. He brought alot to the big picture and shows great raging expressions too as I forgot to mention. A true character actor.
Aaliyah (Queen Akasha) did her job perfectly as a queen vampiress as well as having a stunning evil attitude and features. She certainly had a way with her speaking too and lived to play this part. She was believeably wicked and really proved her energetic skills to act powerful too. It was so sad that she died in a plane crash shortly before the release of this film. Bless her soul indeed.
Marguerite Moreau
(Jessica Jesse Reeves) had the nice girl next door looks as a virgin type for the plot to the vampire and seemed to do fine with what she had to do in the film. She showed a nice descent character to her role and with her good looks can get more work playing these types of parts.
Vincent Perez
(Marius de Romanus) played the role since Cruise turned it down on reprising it but this fellow knew his craft as the head vampire with a great serious attitude and stern behavior. He should be proud of his work in it since he brought his gothic type of character to life.

A heart is ripped out and eaten
A head is sliced off
Some neck bites

There's great strong classical music for the flick with some adventureous horn playing and violin music too for the battles between other vampires. We hear the odd chants too here and there which sounded nice for this type of a vampire flick. All of this was composed by Richard Gibbs.

There's a nice heavy soundtrack too by many artists most notably Marilyn Manson in which you can really hear his singing while watching the film.