Now I know, I know you’re all sick of vampires. Who isn’t? But this book series by Richelle Mead, and now film adaptation are completely different to the franchise I know you’re thinking of.
Vampire Academy is more about a friendship between two girls, Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir played by Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry. Although both vampires, each girl is from a different race of vampires with different roles. Rose is a guardian and protector, whilst Lissa is vampire royalty. After living a normal mortal life and being on the run for years from Vampire Academy, they are found and dragged back reluctantly to live on campus with their own kind. All the while, trying to figure out what evil is threatening Lissa and establishing their place in vampire society.
I’ll be honest, the trailers for this film never looked promising. But after reading through the book all in one go, I ended up going to see the movie on the same day after finishing my book, and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love the book series and I definitely enjoyed this movie.
Although their are some things in the film that don’t happen in the original novel, I can understand why the movie creators did what they did. I unlike some fans don’t believe the page to screen interpretation has ruined the film, and am quite satisfied with what I saw.
I love the tongue-in-cheek snarky humour this film displays. It holds the same mood as the novel, is fun, light-hearted but never too much to make the film cheesy. The casting, acting and directing are great too. It isconsidered an action-fantasy-comedy, so the humour is on purpose and not present to parody anything regardless of what silly critics say.
My only disappointment is that the previous vampire franchise may have dashed any hopes for this film being properly recognised, acknowledged, and that there may not be a sequel. But let’s not think too far ahead for now.
Although not for everyone, I think that if people gave this film a chance with no hidden expectations or disappointments, they’d enjoy it. As stated before, I did not find the movie trailers promising at all and expected the worst. But after giving the book series a go and seeing the film for myself, I’m glad I did. Vampire Academy is a fun, entertaining film, and I am not ashamed to say that I loved it.