Description: Velvet. Silk. Leather. See through shirts. Beautiful swaying
hips. Charisma. Action. Brooding looks. Camp fun. A driving Nine Inch Nailsish
soundtrack. Vampires as they should be. You know. You die. You come back
as someone with incredible fashion sense.
Okay, so it’s not entirely true to
the book in factoids. Events are squished and warped and whole characters
fade into ciphers. Whatever.
It has the feel. Homoerotic. Heteroerotic.
Beautiful girls and boys in beautiful clothes killing, fighting, and loving.
Stuart Townsend is a perfect Lestat.
Sometimes he broods over the whole vampire thing. Mostly he just enjoys
it. Becomes a rock god, so he won’t be alone and, well, because he’s a
total narcissist, but we all have our faults. And he is so pretty.
There are funny moments when Lestat
sits with the hilarious Vincent Perez, also large with the charm, as Marius
in front of a giant billboard of well, Lestat. Or rather in front of Lestat’s
crotch. Odd moments when they loose you with weird camera tricks. Swirling
action scenes, which for once take advantage of the three dimensional characteristics
of a flying fight scene. Or the best bits when Lestat sucks you in with
serious wattage charisma.
And oddly enough, I was entranced
by their skin. It looked like parchment. It was an incredibly, well, “neat”
effect. The movie had texture. All the textured fabric and roses and blood.
The music wasn’t bad either.
Aaliyah was also pretty cool as the
Queen. I didn’t hips could move that way. She was as she should be. A great
cat. Totally satisfied with her self. Knowing everything belongs to her.
I wasn’t quite Brandon Lee Crow level sad watching her in the movie, but
still, a sad loss.
And for a fluff film, some interesting
moments when the vampires move super fast and then y talk about the tides
of humanity washing past them. Moments when the film makers show the vampires
standing still as statues, surrounded by writhing thriving humanity. Makes
you wonder about just how would such creatures perceive time.
Warning: You may end up leaving the
theatre humming the Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson, as I did. However,
it is a fun romp.