Vampire Academy

Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch) is a Dhampir. Dhampirs protect the Moroi who are kinda vampires. Rose had run away from St Vladimir's Academy with her Moroi friend Lissa Dragomir (Lucy Fry). They have a rare psychic connection. Lissa is the last of the Dragomirs and in line for the crown. They are brought back to the Academy where they face mean girls, convoluted politics, and the ever threatening Strigoi who are turned-evil violent powerful vampire creatures. The Moroi learn to control the basic elements while the Dhampir learn to fight.

It's yet another one of these YA series and more expositions of new terminology to get through. It's enough to turn off anybody. The story throws everything at the viewers. It's a jumble mess. The Academy is reminiscent of Hogwarts except less magical and less interesting. It's also got the modernity setup in a mishmash of styles. The mean girls aspect is simplistic. The writing is not really up to standard. Zoey Deutch tries to bring some interest with a jokey fast-talking sarcastic girl but it's been done better. That's probably the only part that holds any promise and differentiate itself from all the other YA series. It's as if Ellen Page's Juno got dropped into one those franchises. Even though she doesn't succeed, she's still somewhat interesting and the only reason why I would rate this marginally better than the other sludge. Very marginally...

I was very excited waiting to see the movie, but It was a big disappointment when I started to watch it, The movie really sucks, in each and every way, the script, the direction and the acting is so lame, they look overreacted. I read the books and nothing to do, I know, already, some liberties are taken when making movies but this really exceeded that, considering that in the first book that is based assumes many of the facts happened that way and they knew not many details from the first book like in which element Lissa's specialize or how Lissa finds out about the relationship of Rose and Dimitri, a lot of that happened later in the other books. They are very explicit on some things and others are really absurdities that have no coherence. It's a shame they have destroyed a book that liked a lot of people and was looking forward to see it in the big Screen, to turn out in this crappy movie.

I have read all the books. Entertaining young adult novels, easy to read and difficult to put down. Loved them even though I don't really fit the age category being over 30 and a mother of teenagers. However, I was looking forward to seeing the books come to life. I kept my expectations down, but still, I'm sad to say I was so disappointed. I really, really wanted to like the movie but it fell flat.

I think it would have worked so much better as a TV-show, since the books are really about characters, and in the limited time that a movie has, there is simply no time to develop characters in the way the books do. A whole lot of time goes in to explaining who is who and what and why, and the story's twists and turns come too fast and doesn't have any time to build up any suspension at all. I found myself getting bored and wishing for the movie to end sooner than it did. It is such a pity that it was not developed for TV instead.

If you think the tag line (suck at school) is funny, this may appeal more to you than to others. But while this isn't the worst movie of 2014 (I think someone should either watch more movies or at least be a bit more fair), it is filled with clichés from beginning to end. Plus it has a target group and it does fill the needs of that special group more than anything else.

I don't think I have to spell out to whom that is aimed at (the movie itself quoting directly or indirectly Twilight many times). But if you look past that (or maybe just because of that), you can see an effort to make this light and fun at the same time. Actors can not really be judged by this alone, but they don't really put the breaks to the movie, so that's a positive. You know what you're getting, don't complain about it later ...

To begin with, I would like to thank @dioptrabooks , feelgoodentment and @MtvGreece for giving me two tickets for the first screening of #VampireAcademy in Greece! The event was held in a cinema in Abelokipous, Athens and we were like 300 fans, or something! It was insane and we, the fans, started getting crazy as we were counting down till the beginning of the movie.

In my opinion, Vampire Academy, is one of the best movie adaptations I've ever seen, since the #TwilightSaga #BreakingDawn part 2. Do not get me wrong; the film has nothing to do with sparkling vampires. The plot line itself was totally different. Let alone the fact that, I have read the books so I knew what I was about to watch.

The movie's plot line stays true to the book's one, but some kick-arse changes occurred and the movie turned out to be more spectacular than expected. Unfortunately, though, the beginning of the movie felt like it was happening really fast. To be honest, had I not read the books, I'd be confused about the three types of vampires (Moroi, Dhampir, Strigoi).

I should probably add that I had my doubts about both the director and the script-writer of Vampire Academy but the film flowed smoothly and it kept you captive its passing minute since there were many interesting changes, as I've already mentioned.

All in all, Vampire Academy is a movie for all ages. It is anything you want to see: action, comedy and thriller. The combination is simply mesmerizing!

ABOUT THE ACTORS/ACTRESSES:

Zoey Deutch: She was extremely good. I remember myself saying that they shouldn't have chosen her for Rose's part but now I understand why they did so. She simply rocks!

Lucy Fry: It felt like Lissa's character was written based on her! Many said that she got them bored and all but hello….it's Lissa Dragomir we're talking about! I was constantly mad at her while reading the books! :P

Dom Sherwood: OMG! I LOST COUNT ON HOW MANY EYGASMS I GOT! He's the hottest vampire (after Robert Pattinson, of course) I have seen! Like the previous members of the cast, his rocked it!

The creepiness that was coming out of Christian was there. I found myself be like, "OMG What's he going to do? Is he gonna hurt her? Look at this mysterious expression." It was like I was reading/watching the book for the first time. Like, everything around me was focused on him…

DANILA KOZLOVSKY: with a couple of words: HE IS OUR Russian GOD! Simple as it is! OMG! When he was getting some training done I was gazing up at him like gawk! His performance was remarkable and he spoke fluently English.!