As a massive fan of Richelle Mead's fantasic novel series Vampire Academy (not to mention its also-amazing spinoff, the Bloodlines series!), I'm more than thrilled with how the movie adaptation came out. It's sincerely to be hoped that word of mouth gets out on how completely fabulous the film is, since those who feel the pop culture spectrum has already been over-soaked in vampire movies may feel too burned out to give this a shot.
Seriously, though...it's kind of a major shame that just-okay sagas such as Twilight and True Blood got to have all of the out-of-the-gate glory, while something as superior as Vampire Academy may not get the immediate attention and legions of new fans those book-to-screen adaptations did. When it comes to contemporary vamp tales, VA is truly top-of-the-heap. And with its easy flow between the comedic, sexy, and deadly-serious, the movie perfectly fulfills everything a fan of the book series could hope for.
Zoey Deutch, who I fondly recall from her excellent performance as Juliet in the exquisitely trashy-soapy CW drama Ringer, is the perfect choice to play the sassy, tough, caring Dhampir Rose Hathaway. She guides the film's tone with her relentless flow of one-liners and easy-to-follow, fun overview of the VA world (Moroi, Dhampirs, and Strigoi are simply and succinctly explained via voiceover without us having to once deviate from the fast and furious story we're thrown right into at the beginning of the movie). Moreover, and most importantly, Rose anchors the film with her fierce loyalty to best friend / Moroi princess Lissa (Lucy Fry) and difficult love for her Guardian trainer Dimitri (Danila Kozlovsky).
Truly, I can't believe how accurate to the novel the casting is and how great all of the actors were in the main roles. Fry captures Lissa's strength, inherent regality and fragility, and especially her affection for Rose and Christian while she's shouldering all of her social and life-threatening crises. She has terrific chemistry with Dominic Sherwood, who exactly pinpoints Christian's loner persona and good heart in what is one of the more subtle, yet strong performances in the movie.
As for Danila Kozlovsky and everything about the Rose/Dimitri section of the film, just wow. I can't believe how perfect a Dimitri Kozlovsky is. It's like he jumped right out of the book and onto the screen, and how often can we ever say that? His chemistry with Rose, and I'm a huge Rose/Dimitri shipper, so this was the #1 most important part of the move for me, is sublime. The way their love is developed through humor, pure sexiness, and conflicted emotions due to the impossibility of their relationship (age difference, positions in the world, the requirements of dedication to Moroi that Dhampirs embody) is purely alive in all its bittersweet, lovable glory. I can only imagine how off-the-charts amazing these two will be in their performances if the movie does well enough to spawn sequels and we ever get to the middle part of the book series, where events take a turn for the horrific and Rose goes on a powerful journey to save Dimitri that comprises some of the best lit I've ever read.
Sweeping the viewer easily into its world with a barrage of witticisms and incisive comments on teen life blended with exciting vamp adventures, suspense and danger, Vampire Academy charms and amuses with constant laugh-out-loud moments hinging seconds away from shocks, hot hook-ups, and scares that are equally potent.
While the main cast is completely spot-on and the script adaptation is exceptional, the only very mild criticism I have to offer is regarding some of the supporting cast and the portrayal of some aspects of the world. Gabriel Byrne is, as always, superb in his performance as Victor, if a tad on the willfully hammy side sometimes. It doesn't really matter, because he gets the last confrontation with Rose in the jail scene so exactly that everything works out as it should. Similarly, at first I was a bit thrown off by Olga Kurylenko's take on Headmistress Kirova, until she got a shot in the butt from Rose and started murmuring about how she could've been a model. Then I completely understood the hilarious tone the film intended the character to be taken in, and got what she was trying to do with the performance. These actors had their ups and lesser moments, but ultimately pulled off what was needed from their roles.
On the other hand, I wasn't really feeling Joely Richardson's version of Queen Tatiana. Mainly due to the way she seemed more like a school principal than the ruler of a large group of vampires, both Richardson's performance and the overall way she was set up in her scenes didn't really work. We should have felt a strong impression of her powerful authority, but instead it was a bit meh. However, and even if it was a bit miscast and those two assembly scenes oddly thin in scope, I've no doubt these aspects can be fixed by the (hopefully!!) sequel. Every single other aspect of the movie is just too completely marvelous for this to be much of a detraction. But still, it would be nice to get more of an intense, intimidating view of the Moroi royals in future installments.
Sarah Hyland, by the way, nails Natasha's nerdy-chic layers in a challenging role, and Sami Gayle kills it with Mia's hatefully vengeful manner. Even at her most repulsive, we never question the strength of Mia's emotional motivations. Cameron Monaghan also completely captures Mason's "Duckie"-ish appeal and his value as a friend to Rose while feeling unfairly sidelined by her romantically. Rose's quick dismissal of Mason's feelings while acknowledging their Pretty in Pink relationship was just as heartbreakingly careless as it was funny and true.
Unlike so many other vampire movies and so many other high school movies, VA is meta enough to give a quick, laugh-out-loud nod to its forebears without muddling itself in the quicksand of trying to imitate them at every turn. It doesn't have time for that because it's too busy being its own awesome movie. And that is, in a nutshell, what makes Vampire Academy so exceedingly worth the moviegoing public's time. Whether it becomes a sleeper hit or a slow growing cult favorite, here's hoping that everyone wises up to what a masterpiece of teen supernatural dramedy adventure this is...in time to get the next one greenlit!
