Vampire Academy Movie Review

Hi Everyone, 

Yes I go see my teen movies, don’t judge me. Vampire Academy is based off the series by Richelle Mead. The movie was directed by Mark Waters and screenplay by Daniel Waters. 

IMDB Story Line: Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch) is a dhampir, half-vampire and half-human, who is training to be a guardian at St Vladimir's Academy along with many others like her. There are good and bad vampires in their world: Moroi, who co-exist peacefully among the humans and only take blood from donors, and also possess the ability to control one of the four elements - water, earth, fire or air; and Strigoi, blood-sucking, evil vampires who drink to kill. Rose and other dhampir guardians are trained to protect Moroi and kill Strigoi throughout their education.

Along with her best friend, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir (Lucy Fry), a Moroi and the last of her line, with whom she has an unbreakable bond. Rose tried to run away from St Vladimir's, in order to protect Lissa from those who wish to harm the princess and use her for their own means but was dragged back to the school and is now faced with gossip, teen vampire mean girls, and a hot guardian trainer by the name of Dimitri Belikov (Danila Kozlovsky). 

My Thoughts: I made sure to read the books prior to the movie being released so I was prepared. I know the movies can never live up to the books but sometimes a movie can stand on its on. This movie did an okay job. There were points that I just wanted to stand up and fill in the blanks that were left out. 

Deutch did a great job as Rose. I felt the appropriate amount of sass and stupidity was conveyed on screen. Deutch did not push it too far and was a believable character. Fry as Lissa is a different story. In the beginning I could not connect with the character but once she started to use her powers the actress became stronger in the role. She properly settled into the role of vampire princess and I started to root for her relationship with Christian Ozera (Dominic Sherwood). 

The annoying Natalie is played by Sarah Hyland from the hit show The Middle. She does a great job as Natalie and somehow is able to down play how truly beautiful she is in real life. Rose and Lissa also had to face the head of the mean girls, Mia Rinaldi (Sammi Gayle). The actress was chosen well as she had the little kid look down but was the appropriate level of mean and petty. 

The Christian and Lissa story line worked for me as the actors picked for the roles worked well together on screen. The Dimitri and Rose story line did not work for me at all. I understand Dimitri is supposed to be older and forbidden fruit but he appeared too old for Rose and became a little creepy. He was not cute enough and did not bring the character to life. If they decide to make the next book into a movie they should replace Dimitri. 

Overall the move stayed true to the book which is always good. I enjoyed the fight scenes and Rose is a strong female character. I think there is room for growth but overall the movie was okay. I cannot say it was bad but I wished for more. I must admit they did a great job of poking fun at themselves at times and had a Buffy the Vampire Slayer feel. I think there is potential if they continue the series.

Leave your thoughts about the movie in the comments.

Post by Vikki
Twitter: ProfessorWhite