wrong reviewer, right movie...

Rating: 9/10 (6 May 2006)

OK..I am a Rice fan, and a huge fan of the novels. I have nearly all of them memorized. And you are also correct in saying Kirsten Dunst WAS Claudia..she crushed this role. The rest of the cast acted well, they just lacked any physical resemblance to the characters in the books, I can forgive that.
I do however have to take you to task for saying this movie lacked depth, and as such was just the story of a vampires life. Did you not pick up on the irony Louis endures? When faced with death, he's offered immortality, he accepts like 99% of people would, only to find his new immortal life is even more miserable than the one he was about to leave. He must kill to live yet with every killing he wants to die himself, only that is damn near impossible now. Granted the film didn't outwardly show this as a conflict, if you had read the book you'd know that was vitally important to the story of that book as well as subsequent books.
Also, the creation of Claudia is a sub-plot, that has more bearing on the entire Vampire Chronicle series than anything else in that story. Claudia and the defiant creation of Claudia bears importance all the way to the newest book of the series. Again you would have had to read the books for that to mean anything more than what the film portrays...
Had you read the book you would have also known exactly why Armand and his band lived as they did, where they did, and who was really behind their "revenge" and eventual death sentence to Claudia..all of this adds up to a film that was deep without appearing deep, because the depth comes later. Anne Rice wrote the books much like Quinton Tarrantino directs movies, not in chronological order..Interveiw, takes place in the 80's and tells a story 200 years in the making...Yet in later books she goes back over 6000 years and gives the complete synopsis of dozens of characters, leading up to Louis and his "interveiw" they also tie all that together allowing you to "know" why louis is the way he is, and why Claudia was significant..
By the way, I found interest in the series after seeing the movie first, and even having never read any of the books previous to the movie, I could tell there were reasons behind everything. That was what drew me to the books was because I wanted to know the "why" of it. In hindsight, I think the screenplay was written like that on purpose. Anne Rice helped write it after all.
You aren't a Rice fan or a fan of the chronicle series, so forgive me for my bluntness when I say you aren't the one who should review this movie. Instead of looking for a "self contained summary on the meaning of life"..look at this movie as chapter one of nine.
This movie was light years ahead of the next movie Queen of the damned, which IS the Hollywood glitz-fest written by idiots for idiots...