Vampire Academy

Year of release : 2014

Run time : 1h44m

Genre : Fantasy / Comedy / Horror

Cast : Zoey Deutch, Danila Kozlovsky, Lucy Fry, Sarah Hyland, Gabriel Byrne, Olga Kurylenko, Joely Richardson

 

The movie is based on the first book of the Vampire Academy series of books, written by Richelle Mead (which I read ,and didn't like.I read at least 4-5 books and quit, although I bought more,because I hated the leading character. Dimitri was great,though.).

 

Rose Hathaway is a 17 year old dhampir, who is still training to become Lissa Dragomir's (who's rumoured to be the next Moroi queen) guardian. Dhampirs are a sort of hybrid between vampires and humans, who train to protect the Moroi. The Moroi are mortal vampires who pretty much live and die like humans, but who have magical powers, belong to royal bloodlines and drink blood to survive . Make it make sense!!! The Strigoi (which are like the animals of these species;as I recall when one becomes Strigoi they forget who they were, they become a different person,without feelings ) hunt the Moroi. The Strigoi are what the Moroi become if they completely drink the victim's blood, or the Moroi's blood?!

She and Lissa fled the Saint Vladimir Vampire Academy the year before (we don't know why), and are living off the grid. Rose offers Lissa her blood, as she needs it to survive (why she couldn't hypnotize random people to do it, beats me!)

The night the movie starts they are found by the ones from the Academy and brought back.

At the Academy, after being allowed to stay, Rose trains and forms a bond with her Russian trainer, Dimitri Belikov, while Lissa is being bullied by her peers. Lissa does make a friend, Christian Ozera, who's parents became Moroi,and is an outcast himself at the academy.

Rose doesn't have it easy either, as she's called 'blood wh0re', as apparently is bad to let Moroi drink your blood, but they still need to drink it. So their victims are seen as lower class, I guess, because they drink their blood. So nice! No good deed goes unpunished!

 

Lissa is threatened through messages written in blood on walls, dead animals,and rumours which they think are spread by Mia, who has something against the Dragomirs.

Rose and Lissa have an unique bond, as Rose can see at times through Lissa's eyes (we find out later is because Lissa healed Rose in the car accident her parents died), and she doesn't like seeing Lissa likes Christian, so she pushes him away from her.

They befriend Natalie, the daughter of Lissa and Rose's only friend, Victor Dashkov,who was next in line to become king if it wasn't for his terminal disease.

The girls decide Lissa should use her powers to hypnotize people into thinking what she wants them to, to make them like Rose and Lissa, and turn against Mia.

Problem is, magic takes its toll on the ones using it, making them lose their minds.

I enjoyed the movie last night, although I hated it the first time I watched it. It has ugly colors, and everybody looks pale,ugly and faded, except for the lead.

Danila Kozlovsky, although a beautiful man, looks ugly with the makeup and long hair, although, he looks exactly the way his character is described in the books, the long hair, the clothes (Dimitri liked cowboys,if I recall correctly, and dressed like one ).I think they should have tried to make him look good, and style his hair, shorter, as I saw Danila with shorter hair (but still long for a man),and he looked great.

Another thing which bothered me, is even the Russian speaking actors ,Danila and Olga Kurylenko, were pronouncing the Romanian / Russian names like Americans. Joely Richardson was the only one pronouncing the names correctly.

Also, hearing Danila's accent, I realize the Russian accent portrayed in movies, which is similar to the Romanian one, has nothing to do with reality, as they don't sound like the actors playing Russians.

The clothes looked ugly. There's a scene in which Rose and Lissa talk about some dress they find amazing, and I was expecting to see some amazing dress, but it was ugly. So was the necklace.

The actors were fine, although at first I thought Zoey was overdoing it.

The fighting scenes were great.

The soundtrack was good.

 

The movie received negative reviews, and only made 15.4 million dollars from a budget of 30 million,being a box office bomb!

The movie is free with ads on Pluto Tv, The Roku Channel and Tubi, with subscription on Peacock and Peacock Premium, and is for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Fandango at Home.

Rating : Worth a watch !