Devoid of the imagination, the rich historical portrayal and the intrinsic design of Anne Rice's novel, The Queen of the Damned offers the audience nothing (minus the beauty of Aaliyah). The destruction of a cult novel, the mutilation of imagination: It is a high school Goth's nightmare.
This is a movie about vampires--vampires that wear purple velvet, eighteenth century lace and very open v-necked sweaters. Think Banana Republic from Hell, think Calvin Klein selling his soul to the devil--it's the Ambiguously Gay Vampires.
Here is a brief action proxy devoid of conflict and generally missing a plot. The vampire Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens. He wears mesh, and he wants to drink your blood. Lestat, unlike the other vampires in this film, has a day job. He's a heavy-metal musician, and his hidden message is vampire secrets. Mortals--even music critics--take him seriously, and his controversial tunes awaken the ancient vampires. Enter Marius (Vincent Perez), the flaming vampire in a velvet robe. Enter Akasha (Aaliyah), the angry--yet sexy--queen. Overall, it's a mess of vampires, wrestling, blood drinking, biting, sucking and sleazy outfits leading us to conclude that vampires are either sorority girls on a wild bid night or just sketchy.
Had Aaliyah been able to finish her role, the movie may have had sex appeal. Instead The Queen of the Damned is a vacuum of forced lines, bad screenwriting and costumes that only pirates and drag queens would enjoy.
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