Queen of the damned

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WildatHeart

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The commentary explained a lot to me. Because i was so dissapointed in the film at first because of how far removed from the book it is. But the commentary helped me understand why they had to change the storyline around.
 
I really liked this movie. Stuart Townsend and Marguerite Moreau had amazing chemistry as Lestat and Jessie! :)
 
I've talked about my view and thoughts countless times but right now I feel very, very inspired.
I originally posted this on Fanpop's QOTD Spot forums.

THE FOLLOWING SPOILS THE ENTIRE MOVIE!!

Before we start - please remember - I do find the film entertaining and I don't think it completely sucks. Please read my post to the very end and you'll see.

Someone there said;
"...and the Lestat/Jesse relationship, dont get me started, well actually im going to start. I can understand that most people like a good love story, so its good for selling, and it makes things a lot simpler, i guess it works with the script..."

It's not even a good love story - it's not even love to begin with - but it sells because people don't know that before they pay for seeing the **** and some don't see it even after that but go delusional. Unless, perhaps, if they they read criticcs first.

And one thing it doesn't do, is work with the script. Or rather, should I say, the rest of the script doesn't work with the Lestat&Jesse part, which is obviously the basic part. But then again, what the hell, the Lestat&Jesse thing in itself doesn't even work, whereas the rest of the script would've worked perfectly well without the L&J - so without the Lestat&Jesse relationship the script would've wotked perfectly! And if everythng else but the Lestat&Jesse parts were left out... it still wouldn't have worked but at least it wouldn't insult the books so much and it wouldn't look so stupid.

I feel, it is stupid to say "it's rubbish because it isn't exactly like the books" because naturally a film can not be that. It could not and it should not, be that.

But just as stupid it is to defend this practicular film for anything it does, in the name of limited minutes. Sure, THEY (the film makers) naturally use that excuse but it miserably false, once people start looking at what exactly the film makers have done.

They call this an adaptation of the books and give an excuse of "limited minutes and information overload" for not adapting the books more accurately. While - They. used. most. of. the. film. with. a. relationship. that. is NOT. in. the. books. what-so-ever. They cannot use limited minutes and information over-load as an excuse for not being more accurate to the books. For leaving so much out. There is no excuse when they did what they did.

And you wish they just left out stuff. But they totally distorted and dismissed whatever they did take from the books. And why did they do that? Clearly to aim at the part that isn't in the books - the Lestat&Jesse. The film screams their desperate efforts to pair the two and they in the end do it regardless of how their storyline doesn't support it at all but the exact opposite. This making the disrespective, abusive insult towards the book even worse.

And just when you thought it couldn'r get worse, you start to really think of how ridiculous the film's story in general is independently. How ridiculous, illogic and unrealistic that so called love story is. No chemistry, no realistic storyline and everything that truly was about love and bond, in the story (and I'm talking purely about the film's story now), is in the very final scene ignored and thrown to garbage box to have their own "lovers" end up together.

Whatever could I be refering to with that?! It's a perfect love story with perfect logic, why can't I see it?! Let me just say: HA. HA. HA.

In the film, Lestat was clearly fascinated by Akasha - in the first place when he meets her as a statue and a little even when he meets her in person - and he even more clearly could not live without Marius, obsessing to find him, to get him back. Becoming suicidally depressed and being obviously deeply touched the moment Marius leaps on the stage to protect him from actually being killed. And naturally, Marius does this because he loves Lestat so much that he would risk his own life to even try to save him. He DID - there was no way he could've with absolute certainty succeded and survived alive on the stage with all those vampires surrounding them. Not even though he was an ancient. Without Akasha's appearance - they would've both been killed right there. Unless of course if they flew away, which they were both capable of but I'm certain Lestat would not agree to do that even if it was Marius telling him. Would Marius have forced him to? Probably yes - sure as hell he would not see the kid getting himself killed because of his stanima and recklessness, even if those are ones of the things in Lestat Marius strongly loves. But the point was that Marius loved Lestat enough to risk his own life to try and rescue Lestat. And I think it originates from the Bible, the very true saying that there is no greater love than to die in the place of someone else. Which naturally of course equals efforts to save someone by risking your own life.
And I wish to remind you what I already said; Lestat really, really, REALLY wanted Marius back in this film. Starting from calling for him many times even though he never got an answer, noticing and saving someone he doesn't even know, just to find out if they know marius, inteniting to kill them if they don't know Marius, well, I could go on but I think I've made my point.

But as for Jesse - his so-called sweetheart in the final scene, who he walks with, hand in hand, smiling...

...he notices and saves her life only because she mentioned Marius's name and intents to kill her when finds out she doesn't know Marius and knew about the man only because she had snooped around his private journal pages, so he insults her with a "Your kind never satisfies my thirst." - later asks her in slightly frustrated tone that why is she following him and what does she want, says in annoyed and almost angered tone that he doesn't have time for her wishes, which wishes by the way were brainless. She argues his decision with a bitchy tone and for some unexplainable reason, he chooses to take her to a flying trip - to hang around with her when there would've been Marius around to spend time with and who he had obsessed about to get back for 200 years. But oh yeah, what is that possibility worth after only such a short time as 200 years of desperation and loneliness and yearning for the man. Not much, apparently. And even if we thought Lestat was mad enough at Marius not to want to spend a night with him, there were his band and his adoring fans who he naturally loved too. But why bother to spend time with them - he only said earlier that he had wanted the fans worship with all his black little heart. So let us just have him spend his night with this brainless twat, who he has clearly expressed he hates and doesn't want around.

After the flying trip Jesse almost gets killed by falling, which makes Lestat talk beautifully about humanity and mortality, clearly saying he finds Jesse beautiful because she's human. He loves her humanity and thinks humanity is precious. He doesn't even imply in any ways that he'd love her. Jesse dismisses all this, begging him to let her be with him even though he never said he wanted that. She's begging him to kill in her the only thing he finds beautiful and interesting about her. And for some unknown reason again, he almost does turn her into a vampire. WHAT THE ****?! Way to go! No!!

However he stops just in time, violently psuhes her as far from himself as he could, and becomes angry and offended. (Gees, I wonder why!?) And soon enough clearly intents to kill her again / tun her with anything but loving attitude.

Then in the concert, Jesse brainlessly screams out his name and wants his attention for no reason that I can think of, whatsoever, while Lestat doesn't seem to even remember she exists. And when Marius appears on the stage, Lestat clearly forgets about everything else but marius and how much fun he's having kicking the vampire ass with Marius.

Why the hell is he with Jesse in that tone in the end, instead of having killed her off from bothering him, feeling even remotely sad about Akasha's death and enjoying Marius's company with all his black little heart? And not only does he hang around with J and not do those other things but he hangs with Jesse who he had turned into a vampire, so killing in her the only thing he ever found beautiful about her and so there should be no valid reason for him to care about even her exsistance at all at the point. I think the only valid reason for him to turn her into a vampire would be that he didn't want her to die just because of someone like Akasha, who he clearly didn't exactly love. But then again he obviosuly hated Jesse more than he didn't love Akasha, so... But then again, I think he respected Maharet, who Jesse clearly was important to. But after that act, he would've realistically and logically left Jesse with Maharet and hope beyond hope that she leaves him alone - and been sad about Akasha and how he can no longer be a rockstar but must remain in shadows again, and sought and received comfort in Marius's company.

This film has one of the most self-mocking storylines I've ever had the dispelasure to witness. And the saddest thing is I'm not even sure if the film makers see it. And, to add the insult to injury; they butchered the borrowed material (from the books) in the name of something they didn't even make work.

Someone said that the day Twilight was published was literature's blackest day. I might say the same about this film - only for the from-book-to-film part of film art.

Why not for the whole film art? Because I think - regardless of how self-mocking the storyline in general is and how without the Lestat&Jesse the film would've been gazillion times more believable and better...

...this is generally taken, a good film.
X This had a potentially working plot in the parts that were borrowed from Anne Rice's boosk even if they were horribly distorted. (I don't think they would've been without the Lestat&Jesse thing.)
X The actors are all very talented and portray the roles heartfelt and convincingly. It is not their fault the script writers suck and the director also affects how they portray things.
X The atmosphere is ok for a modern vampire film.
X The music is awesome.
X Whereas some scenes are cheesy, some are really good. For cheesy such as the night club scene (inside the club moments), and the scene where Lestat meets the band in the beginning. Also, the beginning's voice-over with Lestat's words is cheesy. The original one they intended was much better. And of course the end is the cheesiest and most horrific of them all. But the really good scenes were all the Lestat's journal entry scenes (except Lestat's birth scene bothered me for several reasons, but it was still ok.) And the entire concert scene kicks ass. Though... I think the way Akasha broke through the stage was ridiculously unoriginal.

So... This film had several good sides for it and is generally entertaining - if the Lestat&Jesse thing is ignored whatsoever. Sadly, it's impossible to ignore completely. Also, I can not seperate this film from the books. And I'm not even supposed to. It is clear from the DVD's commentary track that we are supposed to think of this as an adaptation of the books. They sure are thinking of this as such.

I have a HUGE love-hate thing for this film. Weighting on hate as I am a huge, passionate fan of The Vampire Chronicles and Anne Rice, and deeply care about quality movies and storylines. I like this film for the above mentioned things. Love comes in with the fact this includes Lestat & Marius, however abused they are, they're still in and have some in-characterness there anyway.

Oh, and I should add that of the changes the film made, what I like and have taken as my own vision too, is Marius as Lestat's maker, in which vision the film makers however miserably failed to make it show how perfectly logic and realistic it could be. See my Lestat & Marius fan site's Film: Why the Changes? section for the reasons why. I go very indepth into the books themselves with it. (Link in my signature.) Of course this would've altered everything and had they even tried to adapt the books, this would've been a crucial change and should not have been done in order to save minutes or any other reason. But they didn't adapt the books anyway so this was good and could work well if given a better effort.

And I think the way the originally intended to make that relationship into some balance in the whole discipline matter, was respectable even though unnecessary and they also miserably failed by in the end completely ignoring any physical affection and gentlness from Marius's side.

I also like the way they had Marius appear on the stage in the conceert, to protect lestat. That's what he would've done in the books too if he could've but he was trapped in the ice. And that change made up for some of the bull**** the film had between the pair earlier - not for much, but some.

There was some in-character parts in Lestat's personality and Townsend highlighted and porrayed them very well. Same goes for Marius and Vincent for it. And for Akasha and Aalyah.

Otherwise the film, as an adaptation, sucks big time and not in a good way. If you read the earlier script versions, you may see that almost everything worked - definitely NOT well even in them - but still much more believably than in the actual film. I don't know what the hell happened on the way to make them end up with this extremely ridiculous storyline, when teh original scripts had at least some believable moments (that are however always later destroyed by some bs) and they didn't have so many out-of-character lines than the film does.

This film really is more a pain than entertainment.
 
Yeah I like the chemistry of some of the characters, the music is good, and the bloopers were hilarious.
 
I never read the books, but I didn't like Lestat/Jesse either. It felt so forced and phony - dind't really love Jesse either, even by herself.

I also agree about Vincent Perez being great as Marius. I loved the atmosphere surrounding him.
 
I saw this first time before I had read a word from the books, so I was able to enjoy it better then. But since I read the books, gosh, I began to hate the script writers passionately. O__O BUT not so blindly that I wouldn't still love to look into what they did and didn't do and I've found some reasonable changes too.

As an adaptation this is a painful nightmare. As a film independently, this is relatively appreciatable. I love the music, the atmosphere is fine, the actors are awesome in their roles and the plot works more or less....

See the thing that brings this film's points down in both, as an independent film and especially as an adaptation is the damned Lestat&Jesse pairing. That ridiculous thing has absolutely no chemistry, the storyline couldn't be more unrealistic and all in all it doesn't even have a place in the story. All through the film Lestat is obsessed about hetting Marius back while this annoying, brainless chick won't let him be and then they end it all with Marius coming back, deeply touching Lestat's heart, Lestat forgetting all about Marius and leaving with the chick that had offended him in various ways? HELLO, had the script writers seen their brains lately?

]I have a Hate Site about the Lestat&Jesse pairing with indepth analysing and reasoning on all possible reasons why it's completely hatable. Plus with anti-fan art.

So, the Lestat&Jesse pairing makes the film ridicculous all in all. But if that could be ignored this would be a fine vampire film.

As said, I appreciate this as an independent film but I can't bring myself to seperate it completely from the books in order to stop hating it. Because - let's face it; this ffilm is NOT an independent film. We're NOT supposed to seoerate it from the books. On the commentary track too, the dudes do nothing else but compare it to the books (and make brainless statements that even horses would laugh at.) As a fan of the books I can't seperate the film from them anyways but the fact we're not supposed to do that, isn't helping.

What I hate about the film the most is the ending where Lestat walks away hand in hand with Jesse and Marius goes to David supposedly to turn him into a new companion for himself. It's a total insault to the Lestat & Marius relationship and on the side to the Lestat & Akasha relationship too.

Things I DO like or love about this in the adaptation matter:
X Stuart Townsend is a perfect Lestat from the books this film bases on. In personality as well as in looks, which I indepthly reason on my Lestat & Marius fan site, (a link in my signature.)
X Vincent Perez as well was perfect for Marius.
X Marius as Lestat's maker, which, works perfectly for Lestat's character all in all, and for the characters' relatiosnhip. It WOULD if they had kept Marius in-character. Again, I go extremely indepth with this on my Lestat & Marius fan site, (a link in my signatur.) Vincent and Stuart both would've deserved the chance to portray true versions of the characters.

So... there.
 
I loved this movie. It was the first time I'd ever heard of vampires with feelings and emotions rather than just blood-sucking monsters. That was years ago and now they've become one of my favorite versions of superhuman. Right after werewolfs.

I also just fell in love with Jesse/Lestat.
 
Personally, I do prefer "Interview" to QotD, but I think Stewart Townsend makes a much better Lestat than Tom Cruise ... Cruise was good, but Townsend was better. Plus, I really like the idea of Lestat as a rockstar.

I haven't read the book "Queen of the Damned" but I have read (most of) "The Vampire Lestat". So, I could be wrong, but it seemed to me the movie QotD was more based on "The Vampire Lestat" book ... how he found Akasha, how he wanted to be a rock star, etc

Soundtrack to the movie is awsome. I especially love the song Lestat sings at his big rock concert. :cool:
 
It sounds like it would have been an even better movie if they went by the book. I kind of wish they had now..lol :)
 
Even though they were wrong for each other, I enjoyed the Dark Lestat and Akasha was fun to watch.

I heard the same thing about her brother finishing the film, I think the producers talked about it in the DVD's special features.
 
i was out Maharet's sister, Meckare. She is a MAJOR player in the book. I wish they would've given the movie a longer running time. They said in the commentary they changed askasha's death cuz the book version is too graphic. It is..but it is an R-movie so they could've done it lol
 
Well they change a lot for movies from books for entertainment value and time restraint...IWTV is still the best vampire movie other than Bram Stoker's Dracula...
 
Pandora survives in the book. She was the female vampire that Akasha set on fire during the final battle. And Mael, the other vampire who she set on fire then, survived.

and 1 thing that bugged me so bad....they had Marius sire Lestat in this movie..and Marius is not Lestat's sire in the books.


i haven't watched the film in awhile so i need to re-watch the dvd to refresh my memory lol
 
QotD is one of my favorite movies. I liked the chemistry between Lestat and Jessie.
 
Yeah, I don't know for sure...just that her part in the film wasn't fully completed...
 
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