Vampire Academy

I can easily understand why people are hating on this movie so much. I have to admit that when I saw the pink high school cover of the movie, I didn't think I would ever watch it. But when I was bored out of my brains and I was looking for an airy, girlie movie, I found the trailer and it satisfied me enough to watch it. I must say that the story is quite cool, I haven't read the books and after watching this I actually want to read them. But I can understand that vampire or horror lovers find this a tacky 'another vampire movie' thing. It is predictable, girlie, the plot is bumpy and weird. Everything doesn't come together, the storyline only develops itself with more shocking revealings and predictable plot twists. But to be fair, if you are a teenage girl (or like me 21, and still in for teen movies some times) it can be amusing enough to watch. The actors look great, the plot isn't hard to follow and you can just watch it and be happy. :)

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.!

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!!!

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.