Well one of the problems is that they combined the Vampire Lestat (in which he becomes a rock star) and Queen of the Damned (in which said rock awakens Akasha and she decides to kill a lot of men and vampires) into one horrible film. The best parts about QotD, I feel, are the parts with everyone aside from Lestat and Akasha, and I don't know how much the movie follows all that.

As for Rice's decision to do the rock star thing in the first place... I think it's a perfect example of her writing, of the world she creates. I really cant think of a good way to sum up how I feel about the entire Vampire Chronicles, but cheap bargain basement goth does fit in there somewhere.