Posted by tonester on 25th September 2002 01:41 PM:

Queen of the Damned
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“Come out, come out, wherever you are”

I’ve read some of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: in fact, I though Interview with the Vampire was an excellent novel, creating a rich, complex world for it’s characters to inhabit; the next, The Vampire Lestat I found just OK, and the third, Queen of the Damned just ridiculous, so I stopped there. The entire series, though, has proven to be immensely popular around the world, so the transition to film was inevitable.

Neil Jordan’s 1994 adaptation of Interview with the Vampire captured the tone of the novel, and much of the atmosphere, and was altogether a pretty good film. Queen of the Damned attempts to cover the ground of the second two books in the series (fairly lengthy tomes): Lestat (Stuart Townsend), a vampire who has been asleep for centuries due to his distaste for the world, is awakened by Gothic rock. So he decides to awaken and become a rock star, violating the vampires code of anonymity. In this day and age, though, no one really pays attention to his claims, but despite that, the other vampires in the world decide that Lestat has to go. Lestat has also managed to awaken the mother of all vampires (Aaliyah), and she decides that she is going to take over the world with Lestat.

Australian director Michael Rymer (Angel Baby) does little more than provide some eye candy: there are a couple of interesting sequences namely involving film clips, but other than that, there is absolutely no character development, and nothing at all interesting happening in terms of the plot. Anne Rice fans will not doubt be wringing their hands and grinding their teeth: their beloved author’s world has been turned into an opportunity for an action film that bears little resemblance to the book, other than broad reminiscence. God only knows what Lena Olin (Chocolat) or Paul McGann (Withnail & I) are doing here (playing a vampire and a vampire scholar respectively), as this is just one long video clip, with absolutely nothing in the way of subtlety or substance.

Probably the only thing that kept me going through to the end (other than having to write this review) was by playing “spot the Aussie” (the film was made in Melbourne) in a bit part, such as Titiel Mora (a.k.a. Dennis Denuto a.k.a. Martin di Stasio), Matthew Newton and Marg Downey. That’s how desperately bad this movie is. Really. And let me just say that it’s lucky that I only found this bit of information after I saw the film, as I may well have refused to watch it at all: apparently Warners were considering sending this one straight to video, until they thought that they could cash in on the death of Aaliyah (Romeo Must Die) who tragically passed shortly after the end of filming. Lovely.



Technical Specifications
Distributor: Roadshow Home Entertainment
Studio: Warner Bros
Cinema Release: 2002
DVD Release: 2002
Video Format: 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced
Audio Format(s): Dolby Digital 5.1
Classification: M15+


Video
This is a fantastic transfer. Presented at an aspect ration of 2.35:1 and 16x9 enhanced, there were only a couple of minor defects: other than that, it’s jawdropping.

This is a transfer filled with detail, right down to the many dingy and dark places in which the movie is set without a hint of grain. Sharpness, too, is excellent, without any instances of excessive edge enhancement.

Colour too was beautifully rendered, with the blacks as deep as can be, and the occasional flashes of brightness are vibrant.

There were two minor problems that I spotted: two instances of posterization affecting dark skies, and a couple of instances of moire effect on some metal furniture in Lestat’s lair. Otherwise, I spotted no aliasing or film artefacts: a good effort.


Soundtrack
With the top class audio transfer comes an event better Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack – real demo quality stuff.

Thinking back, it’s almost as if all six speakers were going for the whole film: the surrounds either feature vampires flying around the room (an excellent series of directional effects) or the score or the numerous instances of in movie music. There are plenty of action scenes, and they’re without fail brilliantly mixed to put you right in the centre of the action. Importantly, the dialogue never suffers with everything else that is going on.

The subwoofer, too, really gets a hammering. Most of the music is thumping, bassy goth rock, and in addition, there are many times that effects really rumble out.


Extras
Cast & Crew - A mere listing of the main players.

Filmmakers Commentary - This features director Michael Rymer, Producer Jorge Saralegui, and co-composer Richard Gibbs. If you are a fan of the novels, and want to know where it all went horribly wrong, give this commentary a listen as it mainly covers the differences between the film and the books. The commentators also spend quite a bit of time explaining what’s going on and why… call me old fashioned, but I would have thought that this sort of stuff should have been in the movie. There is very little technical information, with the balance of the information relating to the actors, although there are very few pauses.

Additional Scenes - (32:15) (2.35:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0): There are 13 scenes in total. None of them would have made the movie make any more sense. Video and audio quality are as good as can be expected from this sort of feature.

Documentaries - (1.33:1, Dolby Digital 2.0): There are three here. Behind The Scenes (9:47) looks at the wire work, makeup and effects. Very informative, and quite enjoyable to boot. Aaliyah Remembered (3:15) is a brief tribute to the late actress. Interviews (11:35) looks like a second part of the first documentary, this time concentrating on the music (and the various guest performers) the concert at the climax of the movie and the creation of the score. Video and sound quality are excellent for all three.

Music Videos - In this section are the video clips that we glimpse throughout the movie. The first three are “Lestat” videos for “Redeemer” (3:49), “Forsaken” (3:45) and “System” (4:43). Last is Static X’s clip for “Cold” (3:18) (2.35:1, Not 16x9 enhanced). All feature good video and sound quality.

Club Reels - (2.35:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0): First is the song “Not Meant for Me” – extended concert version (2:40), followed by “Slept So Long” – full concert version (4:21). Both songs are presented as if they were film clips recorded at the concert rather than interspersed with action as they are in the movie. Video is a little soft.

Gag Reel - (2:46) (2.35:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0): A reasonably amusing montage of bloopers set to music.

Stills Gallery - These are a series of images ranging from production photos to conceptual designs of costumes, characters and locations.

Theatrical Trailer - (1:54) (2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0): Quite misleading: you think it actually might be a decent film. Well presented.

Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles - Here we have notes that summarise the plots of each of the novels in the series.

DVD-ROM Features - Web links only here.


And The Survey Says...
This is an extremely impressive DVD package: video and sound are brilliant, and there is a comprehensive extras package. If only the movie didn’t suck…


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