Vampire Academy (2014) Reviews

• Loved the books - Hated the movie

  raechel-carlsen2014-03-19

  I have read every book from the VA series many times over and I absolutely love them - love the story, the characters and everything in between. After seeing the trailer for Vampire Academy I already knew it was going to be terrible, but I went and saw it anyway - I'm such a huge fan of the books, I had to go see the movie. I went with my Best Friend and we both have the same opinion of the film. Hands down, the worst book to movie adaptation I have ever seen.. And I have seen a lot. I'll start by saying that even before I saw the film I wasn't happy with the casting choices they made. And I'll tell you why. Rose Hathaway is meant to be this bad ass curvy, voluptuous girl with dark tanned skin (from her Turkish father, remember?) and dead straight, long, almost jet black hair. What they made her was this skinny, pale, curly haired stick with no curves, no tan and no straight hair. Not to mention you could tell they had to purposely make the actors boobs look bigger by putting her in push up bras. I also don't think Zoey Deutch did a good enough job playing Rose. Don't get me wrong, she's a good actor and as her own character she was great - but not as Rose Hathaway. She wasn't nearly as Sassy enough, not the slightest bit seductive/flirtatious enough and her whole character was built on snarky comments (and yes, I realise that Rose is that kind of character - but that is not all she is. She has substance. And Rose Hathaway in the film, did not). And their decision for Dimitri? COME ON! He was no Dimitri Belikov. Danila Kozlovski did an alright job with the script he was given, he had Dimitri's sneaky smirk down to a T! But he is not a 'god' like Dimitri is so often described as in the books. His fight scenes were all so obviously fake and they weren't convincing. I said it before and I'll say it again.. Worst book to movie adaptation ever. Who ever wrote the script for the film clearly loves their soap operas because this is exactly what the film felt like to me. It actually felt like they were mocking the book. They made it all about cheap jokes and cheesy one liners and the book is WAY more than that. They focused solely on the comedic side that the rest of it literally looked like a satire. Not to mention they added so much crap in that wasn't in the book and they left out so much from the book that really needed to be in the film. For instance, the development of feelings between Rose and Dimitri - BARELY touched on in the film. Rose & Dimitri don't just fall in love at first sight.. They have weeks of training sessions, of getting to know each other before they realise they love each other. In the film, however, they have a few suggestive comments, a couple of training sessions and at the end of the film they are confessing their love for one another. I was kind of like 'um.. when did that happen?' Another crucial focus in the book is Lissa's Spirit driving her insane.. Which they kind of touched on but not really and definitely not enough. They also decided to add a random scene where Rose tells Headmistress Kirova and other faculty members about Lissa's Spirit.. As far as I remember, in the book, Rose does everything to prevent them from finding out... They also made a HUGE mistake when they decided to add a Strigoi attack at the very beginning of the film just outside the gate at St Vlad's.. hmm, last I checked the wards surrounding the Academy stretched much farther out then the gate line. But who am I to say, I could be mistaken.. I've only read the book say at least 5 times! (not even an over exaggeration). Another scene they decided to ruin was the lust charm scene, which lasted all of 15 seconds. In the book, Dimitri sees the 'decision' in Rose's eyes and removes her necklace as it's the last item of 'clothing' she's wearing, then and only then do they realise what the necklace was.. In the film, however, Dimitri somehow knows exactly what the necklace is and rips it from her neck violently. Also, Christian doesn't get shredded to pieces by the PSI hounds.. He gets shot. By Victor Dashkov. Yep. That actually happened. Or, didn't happen. One final point I will make, is that I know how difficult it is to make a good movie adaptation from a book.. There is way too much in a book that just can't fit in to a movie. But I feel like there could have been much better decisions made regarding Vampire Academy to make it a much better film. I even thought that as a movie on it's own, it was terrible. There was no real point to it - people watching it who haven't read the books would probably walk away going 'was that a mockery of all things Vampire?' Not to mention the film raced through the storyline as if there was no tomorrow. I have read some other reviews by other fans of the books and I have to say, I'm extremely disappointed in the fact that they thought it was a fantastic movie.. In my opinion, it most certainly was not. I would be shocked to my core if I heard Richelle Mead say she was proud of the movie and happy with the direction the director/writers/producers etc. took. This movie was not Vampire Academy. This movie was rubbish.

• A Simply Fun Film!!!

  Pinhead882014-02-07

  I see one review that simply bashed this movie for having vampires and magic. So that must pertain to twilight and harry potter right? No. This movie is a combination of underworld (slightly) and mean girls. I've read the novel and it was the exact same way. The thing is this movie was destined to follow twilight, and to be honest if twilight never came out this would be better anticipated. Anything nowadays has to live up to the sh*t that is twilight. Twilight was moody and had a message that having a boyfriend is most important while this one is simply have fun and be yourself. People always will compare vampire movies to twilight, and thats simply blasphemous. You go into this movie wanting to find deep meaningful messages and symbolism, you won't find it. Go into this movie with an open mind and ready to have fun you'll enjoy yourself immensely. This is simply a movie to have fun, that is ALL!!!

• What film did everyone watch?

  willwri142014-03-08

  I'm sitting here writing this a mere four hours after seeing the film, and I don't really know what I expected - if I expected nearly two hours of tired tropes and poor writing, coupled with all around poor performances, I would be happy. If the film was well written, well acted, and a slight bit campy, it would be fine, but it just wasn't. The concept isn't original, the cast was all around shocking, excluding Victor, although there seemed to be a complete lack of evil-ferret-stroking; his character arc was rather predictable. Every single line was just exposition after exposition, with the occasional burst of teenage sass from Rose, which was extremely frustrating after a while. Quipping one liners is not necessary, especially after an hour and a half. Every relationship felt forced, I didn't feel any connection to the characters, and I honestly couldn't care less what happened to them; they were not believable in the slightest. A good script would have helped, but the performances also assisted in bogging it down I actually enjoyed the concept, as someone who hasn't read the books. I liked the vibe I got from the film to begin with, but it felt extremely tacky. Everything felt like plastic, everyone's face was constantly caked with makeup, felt extremely superficial and tacky, and every backdrop was injected with a tonne of poor CGI. All of the special effects through the film were just poor, and were not nice to look at. The fire effects looked like the fire effects from Adobe After Effects. I liked what they were trying, but they honestly needed to up their game all across the board; budget-wise, script-wise, casting-wise, and the dozens of other issues with this picture. I almost got a 'it's so bad it's good' feeling, but it's heavy handed and poorly made throughout. I do not recommend.

• Easily the worst film of 2014 so far

  gregsrants2014-02-09

  I had a glimmer of hope for Vampire Academy. The faintest bit of optimism that the film might actually be something that Ender's Game and Beautiful Creatures was not. I knew nothing of the books. Seven in total I am told from my vampire novel-loving partner. But surely it a major studio release couldn't be as bad as the Twilight films. Surely just out of blind luck, a vampire film targeting the tweens might actually be watchable. Nope. Vampire Academy not only fails to exploit my flicker of faith but it pulverizes any rational reason as to why the screenplay was greenlit in the first place. A monstrosity of a mess, Vampire Academy is a clear front runner for worst film of 2014. I could attempt to educate you on the script, but I am not quite sure I understood it all myself. In the first five minutes alone we see a car crash, get introduced to a vampire and her half-vampire/half-human guardian, force fed the supernatural bond between the two, learn that vampires can control the four elements and are given a description as to dhampirs, Morois and Strigoi's. Whew. Zoey Deutch (looking very much like a young Rose Byrne) plays Rose Hathaway. She is a dhampir who is protecting Princess Vasilisa Dragomir (Lucy Fry) from Stigoi – an evil vampire breed created when a vampire takes a human life. Maybe more evil still are Vasilisa's classmates at the Vampire Academy who resent her return after being in the real world for the past year. It's like Mean Girls with fangs. There is some sort of plot. Vasilisa is tormented by someone or someones in her school who sacrifice wolves and cats in an attempt to gather her attention. Vasilisa seems less concerned about those trying to kill her than she is about the boys in her school and her desire for acceptance. That brings a few Robert Pattinson look-a-likes into play that add nothing much else to the story than doing just enough to get us to the next DVD chapter without displaying any real character. There is also a love interest for Rose, large wolf dogs, more vampire mythology and Gabriel Byrne trying his best to ensure that he is not overlooked by next year's Razzie nominations. The screenplay by Daniel Waters is the film's largest obstacle. The dialogue is Aaron Sorkin fast but written with a Uwe Boll sense of direction. Characters talk quickly to each other and then the scene will just cut as if we came to the end of a chapter and the director didn't know how to transition to the next scene with any sense of flow. Those holding out for strong action scenes to be the glue that holds you between naps can forget about it. Poorly choreographed and uninspiring hijinks are the norm as the film stumbles towards a final shot that suggests a sequel (it will not happen). Vampire Academy might have worked as a television series. Why not. Dirty Little Liars Meets True Blood on CW. But this mess is easily the worst film of the year. At least until the next Adam Sandler film is released.

• No, just no.

  dolf_wega2014-06-28

  This is one of the worst based on a book movies ever made. If you read the books, you will be disappointed to the point of crying. The script is very poor. Of course you can't put everything from the books in a movie, but this was just bad. The cast also was a big disappointment, the actresses didn't match the characters at all, it's a big question to me why they were chosen to play them. Rose, my favorite character in the books, is completely ruined by this girl (Zoë Deutch or something I thought) that doesn't have any of Rose's style and sass. Her acting was also very poor. No, I cannot recommend this movie to anyone. Just read the books instead.