VAMPIRE ACADEMY (2014)

Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Director: Mark Waters
Cast: Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky, Gabriel Byrne, Sarah Hyland, Joely Richardson, Cameron Monaghan, Sami Gayle, Claire Foy, Ashley Charles
RunTime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: PG (Some Violence)
Released By: GV
Official Website: http://va-movie.com/

Opening Day: 27 February 2014

Synopsis: Based on the first book in author Richelle Mead's successful series of "Vampire Academy" books. Rose Hathaway (Deutch) is a Dhampir: half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely within our world. Her legacy is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. This is her story.

Movie Review: 

It’s too easy to diss a movie like ‘Vampire Academy’. For starters, it seems to be yet another one in an infinite line of Young Adult fantasies making its way from page to screen and hoping to emulate the success of the ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘Twilight’ franchises. For another, and no thanks to ‘Twilight’, it comes off as yet another YA-targeted story about them bloodsuckers which continues to dilute vampire lore with tween-friendly soap opera. Maybe it is because we had our expectations set low from the get-go, but Mark Waters’ adaptation of Richelle Mead’s source material turned out to be surprisingly entertaining and engaging - and let’s be sure, this is the opinion of someone that clearly does not fall within its target demographic.

As the poster touts, Waters was the director of the hit teen comedies ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Freaky Friday’, both of which portrayed with wit and accuracy the complexity of girls’ feelings about boys, other girls and basically growing pains. Mark, who co-scripts with his equally perceptive brother Daniel here, loses none of that aptitude in the similarly girl-centric ‘Vampire Academy’; digging into Mead’s novel, they capture in sharp detail the awkwardness of teenage heterosexual attractions and the bond of lasting friendships as if they had personally experienced these emotions for themselves.

Choosing to honour rather than condense the mythology within Mead’s constructed world, Waters opts to devote a considerable amount of time explaining the difference between the Moroi (a race of benevolent vampires), the Dhampir (the half-breed protectors of the Moroi) and the Strigoi (deadly bad vamps with the traditional aversions to sunlight, churches, and silver), all of whom represent important factions especially if the franchise has legs to sustain subsequent entries. There is a fair amount of expository dialogue about vampires, witchcraft, ancient hierarchies and secret societies which Waters retains to add depth to the neck-biting hocus-pocus going on, so don’t go thinking that this is just dumbed-down adolescent stuff. 

But the story here is that of Lissa (Lucy Fry) and Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deustch), the former a Moroi princess and heir to the throne of Dragomir and the latter a Dhampir training to be her guardian. Despite attempting to lead normal lives, both are brought back to St. Vladimir’s Academy in rural Montana to receive their respective training. While Lissa and her fellow Morois study magic, Rose learns the art of ass-kicking from her hot tutor Dimitri (Danila Kozlovsky) whom she has a crush on, all the while under the watchful eye of the Headmistress (‘Bond’ girl Olga Kurylenko).

There are boys - besides Kozlovsky, there’s Dominic Sherwood as a pretty bad boy, Ashley Charles as the resident jerk and Cameron Monaghan as the sidekick. There is also bitching, no thanks to Mia (Sami Gayle), who goes around whispering rumours about how Rose must let Lissa feed on her neck. And not to forget, there’s also plenty of cooler-than-thou teen speak, with our two female protagonists leading the wave of cool with Facebook and hashtags that no one else in the Hogwarts-style boarding school has come across. In the midst of all, danger lurks as Lissa becomes a target for real violent pranks from an unknown adversary at the school - which may or may not have to do with the terminally ill vampire Viktor Dashkov (Gabriel Bryne), a member of the Royal Moroi, whose motivations play out like a mystery that the viewer is kept in suspense of.

Speaking of Bryne, the veteran actor’s screen presence is probably the most acting you’ll find in the movie, next to that of fellow thespians Kurylenko and Joely Richardson. Indeed, the teenage cast are largely forgettable in their respective roles, the best of the lot being YA-alum Deutch’s agreeably sassy turn as Rose. Waters is fully aware of this, which probably explains why he feels necessary to have the characters go at each other in a somewhat non-stop barrage of exposition.

That’s not in itself a bad thing; on the contrary, the scripting by the sibling pair here is surprisingly sharp and stimulating, a huge reason why this adaptation is way better than the conventional YA-themed film. Put aside your preconceptions of what ‘Vampire Academy’ might be based on your bias or experience with bloodsucker-type YA material, and you’ll find an often amusing, surprisingly engaging and unexpectedly insightful blend of vampire fantasy and teenage coming-of-age story. Yes, if ever you need an excuse not to be uncool about liking a YA film, then ‘Vampire Academy’ is as good as any. 

Movie Rating:

(Don’t let the YA nature of the material turn you away - this is a surprisingly entertaining blend of teenage comedy and vampire fantasy with spunk and sass that packs plenty of bite)

Review by Gabriel Chong