Movie Review: Vampire Academy

I was excited to see Vampire Academy, but I had rather low expectations given the trailers.  I actually just thought the first book in the series was ok, but I absolutely loved the entire series and I was curious to see how well it translated to the big screen.  I really enjoyed it.

The plot stays true to the book, and I can't think of any major scene or major plot point that wasn't in the movie.  It had a nice balance of dark and funny (the quips from Rose were pretty hilarious) so it felt like the movie stayed true to the book.  I thought the beginning was fairly well done to explain the vampire world (sometimes that's the hardest thing to do in a movie) and I think it's easy for non book readers to follow and understand.  It did have a Mean Girls kind of feel to it, with a decent amount of high school drama, but if you think about the first book, that was a lot of it.

Ok, the actors.  Zoey Deutch was fantastic, I think she was the perfect Rose.  She was spunky, sassy, beautiful, and hilarious.  I enjoyed watching her play the part. 

I also liked Danila Kozlovsky as Dimitri.  He was definitely the strong and silent type, very reserved, with the occasional facial expressions showing a break in his stoicism (the way he would look at Rose sometimes when she didn't know he was looking...very Dimitri).  And even though sometimes his accent was a little much, it was realistic (I mean, the guy is Russian). 

Now his hair was just awful, but that is really not his fault.  Why can movies change major plot points but not just give the guy short hair?  I know he had long hair in the books (which I hated, by the way) but why not just change that?  And it doesn't even make sense given that Rose (in the books and movie) talks about cutting her hair so she can show the Strigoi marks.  So it completely doesn't make sense for Dimitri to have long hair.  Ok, I spent way to much time on the hair.  But look at the pictures below.  How much better does he look with short hair???

Now Lucy Fry and Dominic Sherwood as Lissa and Christian...they were okay.  I did like that the movie focused on Rose and Lissa's relationship, which was also true to the book.  Christian was intense, but there was just something lacking for me in his character.  And Lissa's accent...I don't know, there was just something about it that bothered me, but I guess it was royal-like.  

In sum, an enjoyable film and a pretty faithful adaptation.  So go see it!  As Richelle Mead said, there needs to be a second movie so we can see who gets cast as Adrian.  If that's not enough incentive, I don't know what is!  

Posted by:  Pam