Thoughts on Vampire Academy, the movie

*SPOILERS UP AHEAD*

*DON'T CONTINUE IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK OR WATCHED THE MOVIE*

If you've read my previous post, you'd know by now that I extremely loved Michelle Read's Vampire Academy. And as soon as I finished it, I went to go see the movie.

I was quite pleased with Mark Waters' interpretation of the novel, where most of the major elements appear. I loved the movie simply because it stayed true to the book. Obviously, it's not identical to Read's VA but Daniel Waters (writer for the movie) was able to mention most of the things that are mentioned in the novel.

Starting off, I have to go on a rant here. The box office for the film adaptation of VA is not doing well right now, and I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of the movie. Yes, I think some actors could have done a better job but a big percentage of the population refuses to watch the film because it has the word "vampire" in it. No offense to Twilight (I actually loved Meyer's The Host), but because ever since the movies, nobody has the same respect as they once did for the fantastic. If people would simply learn how different these kind of vampires are, then they would absolutely watch it.

The film itself was a bundle of everything. It included action, most from the damphirs, it had romance (*cough* Christian & Lissa *cough* Dimitri & Rose & Mason*), and comedy. Some people were actually not a big fan of the quick witted one liners but I loved them. It reminds me exactly of how high school works. Vampire Academy also shows the importance of friendship, and not just through the two leading ladies but also through Lissa and Christian, how friendship are so easily broken but also they also show not to judge people from their past. I also really enjoy watching Mason and Rose, who are close friends and it's obvious Mason would do anything for her.

I think some of the viewers were a bit annoyed with the thick accents in the film but it's part of the book and I'm glad that they actually hired an actual Russian guy to play Dimitri.

I also think that Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry were perfect for the respective roles of Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir. Zoey is so hilarious and is really good at showing Rose's cocky side. Zoey has worked very hard also to stay in shape for the role of the stubborn damphir and I think that that part of her training was extremely useful since in the book, Rose is also very determined and trains twice as much as her peers simply to catch up. Zoey was just impeccable as Rose.



Lucy, I think, is very sweet and innocent, much like her character. So I believe it wasn't too hard for her. But I also especially loved it when she was starting to get overwhelmed by "Spirit" and I think she did pretty well.

I'm not saying that I preferred the movie over the book (because books are always better) but I loved some of Waters' lines so much I actually wished Mead had thought of them while writing Vampire Academy. An example, when Dimitri and Rose are making out, he says that he loves her dress and then adds, "Let's burn it." I thought it was hilarious and I give Waters a huge thumbs up for that.

The movie was faithful to the book, in my opinion but if it doesn't do much better in the box office, I'm afraid the option of the film version of Frostbite is out of the table. So please don't hate on it simply because of it's title!