Lestat as Rock Star
Stuart Townsend's Lestat trades Tom Cruise's refinement (Lestat in Interview with the Vampire) for a supersized ego and a healthy bit of bombast. He is the Lestat for whom Rice's fans harbor unhealthy obsessions, the vampire-cum-rock star who, after a century of sleep, awakens to the sound of electric guitars. Soon enough, Lestat is fronting a popular rock band, reveling in the worship and ignorance of his fans. Complications arise when the other vampires catch wind of his very public actions — vampires for centuries have worked to keep themselves in the shadows, and they don't like being outed by prodigal son Lestat.

In response to said anger, Lestat stages a concert in Death Valley, inviting all the other vampires to come and check out the tunes and have a beer. And if they're still not convinced, then they can try to kill him. But Lestat has an ace up his black mesh sleeve, and it's the affections of Akasha, the ancient vampire queen who finds a bit of herself in Lestat's boldness. He's a bad boy; if all of the Ancients were in a boy-band, Lestat would be Justin Timberlake. Akasha, his Britney, decides they should rule the earth together. The rest of the band, of course, resents Lestat for going solo, and realizes that Britney must die before she goes and breaks up the whole thing.

Queen of the Damned is rarely anything more than its costumes and editing. Townsend's French accent is abominable, as is Aaliyah's Egyptian affectation. Vampires aren't usually this boring and predictable — even Blacula was easier to take seriously than these two. Instead of proving the strengths of Rice's 1980s output (particularly the first three Vampire Chronicles novels), this movie echoes the current Anne Rice — that is, the literary equivalent of a straight-to-video film distributor, peddling a continuous string of product that's highly stylized but low on intelligence. Her new fans will love this film.

DVD Goes Behind the Music
The DVD spends much of its disc-space exploring the music of the film — the songs performed by Lestat's band, and the score accompanying it. Rymer hired Korn singer-songwriter Jonathan Davis to write the music, and what he came up with is derivative and commonplace. Not surprisingly, enlisting the aide of Marilyn Manson and the singers from Linkin Park and Disturbed to handle vocal duties on the songs doesn't help all that much. The disc includes three full-length music videos for Lestat's songs, each one stylized to replicate an old horror movie (Nosferatu, for example). A good idea, but one which makes the film's similarity to such a music video all the more obvious. There are two clips from the climactic concert scene that feature extended versions of Lestat's songs, which are basically ruminations on loneliness and feelings of isolation. When did Lestat become Morrisey? This is not what Anne Rice had in mind, surely.

The commentary, featuring the director, producer, and composer, is decent enough, without any meddling actors getting in the way. Ryder keeps it focused, not getting too entrenched in technical information, focusing more on the story and its development from word to image. Of the three featurettes on the DVD, "Creating the Vampires" is the most informative, with the requisite CGI folks geeking it up for the camera, and semi-interesting interviews with Aaliyah, whose soft-spoken, sincere demeanor clashes with her on-screen brashness. The late singer/actress is honored in the unfortunate "Aaliyah Remembered" featurette, a three-minute quickie job including interviews with Townsend, Rymer, and Aaliyah's brother that ends with that most obvious of postmortem remembrances: sweeping music, a freeze-frame close-up, and a slow fade to black.

Legacies, of course, are a bitch. There's no way to tell how you're going to end up. You can hit the jackpot and go out on top like Stanley Kubrick with Eyes Wide Shut, or you can wind up like John Candy in Wagons East, ignobly and humorlessly waddling your way into the infinite. Aaliyah, by no fault of her own, follows Candy's wagon, her brief role an excuse to show a lot of skin and talk with a weird lisp. If you want to really see the girl act, check out her other big role, in Romeo Must Die. (On second thought, just go buy one of her albums.)