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HOLLAND
COLLEGE • March 5, 2002
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INSIDE |
ENTERTAINMENT
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| Damned
vampires entertaining and absurd at once Review by Natalie King natalieok@hotmail.com 
The vein of irony underneath every line spoken by the pasty-but-sultry vampires in Queen of the Damned saves the sequel to Interview with the Vampire from mediocrity. Stuart Townsend stars as Lestat, reprising the role played by Tom Cruise. The late Aaliyah is Akasha, the Queen of the Damned, an extra-thirsty immortal who the movie posters claim "just wants hell on earth." They manage to deliver their lines seriously, but the syrupy script could work as a comedy with a different tone of voice. What saves it is the occasional glimpse of humour in some of the vampires, who seem to be laughing at themselves and each other while they prance and launch into tortured speeches. Vincent Perez as Marius is particularly good at delivering the unintentional one-liners that keep the movie lively. At one point Marius tells Lestat he found him by looking for "the most gaudy house on the block." Lestat is a vampire who craves the spotlight and waking up after a 100-year sleep he hears a new world of heavy metal music and decides to join in. Thankfully he doesn't join the KISS army, but buys some leather pants and grabs a microphone. He uses his fortune to form his own band of humans who play well and ignore the numerous drained groupies lying around. Lestat tells the world all the vampire secrets he knows, set to music. Unfortunately the music sounds a lot like '80s heavy metal even though the movie is set in the present, and is often so loud it hurts your ears. Lestat becomes very popular and other vampires don't like the newfound fame. Akasha wakes up as well, drawn to Lestat's boldness and music. From there on it's basically a killing spree as everyone wants Lestat silenced. Queen of the Damned is a movie that started as a script based ambitiously on two Anne Rice novels from her Vampire Chronicles. Rice takes her time telling a story (many of her books run 400 pages or longer) and there are numerous subplots and flashbacks. Maybe that's why you feel like there's so much going on behind the scenes that you don't see. But if a vampire movie can't profit from a little mystery what movie can? The sets are magnificent, but seem to point out the flaws in the cast. It's not a good sign when you think to yourself Ôwhat a cool wall' while you should be watching the biting and gnashing of teeth. Damned is an oddly tame vampire flick. There's no graphic sex and the violence isn't anything you wouldn't see on television. Lots of vampires burst into flames, but that trick gets old after the first few times you see it. This movie can get away with a lot because vampires aren't rocket science and probably never will be. It looks great and lives up to the large budget, but the cast doesn't have any big stars to draw on. Everyone looks like a vampire, they dress the part and they do their best with the script. It's as convincing as a vampire movie can be, but it's undeniably cheesy. It was impressive that Warner Brothers didn't hype of the death of Aaliyah in the publicity for the movie, putting a simple memorial message at the beginning of the credits. Under the circumstances they used surprising good taste. Go watch it if you like vampire movies or Anne Rice, but don't expect a faithful retelling of the books. At best it's Hollywoodized, more cute and fuzzy than it was ever intended, even as the sex and violence is emphasized. |
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