AMC | AMC+ | Release Date: October 2, 2022
4.6
USER SCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 57 Ratings
USER RATING DISTRIBUTION
Positive:
23
Mixed:
4
Negative:
30
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5
Dahegi13Oct 8, 2022
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This version is a little exaggerated because the look of the characters, the nails, the contact lenses is too much for me, the history don't need that exaggeration. Was a little disappointed. Expand
2 of 3 users found this helpful21
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4
tremaultOct 20, 2022
I liked the concept. In a time where there is so much lazy race swapping, it was nice to have an actual fleshed out character and writing that acknowledges the differences and how the character experiences the world around him. unfortunately,I liked the concept. In a time where there is so much lazy race swapping, it was nice to have an actual fleshed out character and writing that acknowledges the differences and how the character experiences the world around him. unfortunately, that's where the interest ends. Everything else is so dull and uninspired. The lighting is flat and boring and gives no sense of emotion. The costume and makeup do little to present the story about beautiful vampires, mystical creatures of the night. The framing has literally nothing to offer, I have not seen a single beautiful shot that stands out and makes me pay attention. The dialogue has zero poetry, there is no single line that made me feel like it was dancing on my eardum. After the first episode, the birth of a vampire, I found there to be nothing memorable and no desire to watch any more. It's not bad television by any means, it's just standard, by the numbers and just 'OK'. I'd watch it if there was literally nothing else to watch. Expand
4 of 7 users found this helpful43
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6
PsylenOct 29, 2022
Look, it's a good vampire show. Louis is excellent, some of the changes are fairly welcome, the dialogue is pretty on-point, and it's incredibly high budget.

So why the 6/10? Well, I'll start by saying I don't care that Louis is black. It
Look, it's a good vampire show. Louis is excellent, some of the changes are fairly welcome, the dialogue is pretty on-point, and it's incredibly high budget.

So why the 6/10? Well, I'll start by saying I don't care that Louis is black. It works. I mark the show down because of a few things, and all of them at their core have to do with the fact that I don't feel as though the creators really GOT what made the gothic charm of the original book so powerful.

The pace is all over the place. They spend too long in America, but it doesn't linger scene-to-scene. And Vampire Chronicles should really linger, with haunting quiet moments of reflection, slow scenic shots, and moments where they are showing - rather than telling - every emotion on the face of the characters. That's the one area the previous movie did well, which this show does so poorly. There's no pause for reflection - just a string of stitched-together scenes with all quiet cut out, like a mid 2000s YouTube video. But Interview should be quiet in between the storms, to reflect the life of the immortal beings it focusses on.

My second major complaint is that they sexualise the characters. An absolutely marvellous thing about the books (and movie) was that it is a romance without it being about sex, gender, age ... anything. It's simply eternal love. The Anne Rice vampires were unable to have sex, and that really worked. Companions were companions, and it meant more than human love. I really don't care that they gayed it up by a factor of six. My complaint is that they changed the source material to move away from something which made Chronicles vampires so incredibly original and interesting.

My last major complaint has to do with the casting of Lestat and Claudia. Lestat is supposed to be incredibly charming, but instead he comes off as poncy, smug, and unlikeable at times. The actor does incredibly well during scenes of anger or higher emotion, but scene to scene he doesn't work as Lestat. Meanwhile, this Claudia's performance pales in comparison to Dunst, but that's not my main issue with her. The biggest problem here - and perhaps time will tell it to be the biggest problem with the show - is that they got an 18 year old to play the part of a 14 year old, who was 10 in the movie and 5 in the books. Claudia's entire hook is that she's a child vampire. But she's not even that anymore. Further proof that the writers of this show don't get what made the books great.

I'm excited to see where they take it, but seeing as Lestat is the most important character in the entire series, I'm not holding out a lot of hope due to the casting. They turned the Prince of Darkness into Pouting Prissy Queen (and not the good kind!), and that hurts right in the childhood.
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2 of 4 users found this helpful22
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