FILM REVIEW: Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy is a 2014 film based on the Number One Best Selling YA series by Richelle Mead. It stars Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry and Danila Kozlovsky, Vampire Academy was released in the US on 7^th February 2014.

PLOT

Rose Hathaway is a dhampir, half-vampire and half-human, who is training to be a guardian at St Vladimir's Academy along with many others like her. There are good and bad vampires in their world: Moroi, who co-exist peacefully among the humans and only take blood from donors, and also possess the ability to control one of the four elements - water, earth, fire or air; and Strigoi, blood-sucking, evil vampires who drink to kill.

Rose and other dhampir guardians are trained to protect Moroi and kill Strigoi throughout their education. Along with her best friend, Princess Vasilissa Dragomir, a Moroi and the last of her line, with whom she has a nigh unbreakable bond, Rose must run away from St Vladimir's, in order to protect Lissa from those who wish to harm the princess and use her for their own means.

[taken from IMDB.com]

WHY I WATCHED

I had heard about Vampire Academy for quite some time before I decided to take the plunge mostly because of the tone of the reviews, memes and what have you heavily hinted at a story that was all about the romance and not a lot else. Still further research revealed that the series was more than just a love triangle and I eventually decided to try it and was impressed though I thoroughly dislike Rose as a character but that is another story.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Reviewer’s Note: I am a fan of the Vampire Academy series and its follow up Bloodlines so that will colour my review of the film. I would recommend reading the books before checking out the film if they are on your TBR list. For any non YA fans or anyone else who won’t be reading the books, this film can stand on its own as it is a reasonably faithful adaption of the first book in a series.

I was happy at first when I heard about the film adaption for Vampire Academy it has a great, loyal and certainly passionate fan base and it has that classic love triangle which is a toss-up for whether or not it will work in a film franchise. Then I started hearing that “Mean Girls with fangs” tag and I shuddered. VA the books are not particularly comedic so I did wonder what was happening in terms of direction.

Thankfully after watching I can say that the comedy aspect of VA is not overdone or forced it just stays there in the background bringing a smile or a chuckle and definitely did not distract me from the joy of seeing characters who I have followed for years suddenly coming to life onscreen.

VA is a film about vampires with supernatural powers so I have to look at how that was handled. It is not a spoiler to say that Lissa and Rose are psychically linked and the way they handle it in the movie is interesting and very well thought out.

A look at the books' original artwork before they replace it

The only low point in this surprise hit was the fight choreography, in a film about bodyguard who has to fight in hand to hand combat against deadly vampires you would think that they would have spent more time on the choreography. It looks loose and badly edited, it doesn’t compare to say what you might see in a show like Person of Interest which does violence realistically without wirework or slow motion.

How close is the film to the book? The answer to that is “VERY” things are compressed but all the important scenes that stuck in my memory seemingly make it through to the film from the book. I’m sitting here trying to think if any characters are left out and I think the answer to that is no as the second book introducing a lot of the characters that fans of the series might have forgotten didn’t appear in the first book.

The real test for me of any book to film adaption is “Would you recommend it to a fan of the book?” for Vampire Academy the answer to this question is a resounding yes. For those of you not familiar with the book I would urge you to consider a read before viewing but the film stands alone and is absolutely understandable in the way that other popular film adaptions are not if you are unfamiliar with the source material.

BOOK REVIEW: The Indigo Spell

The Indigo Spell is the third book in the Bloodlines series of novels by Richelle Mead author of the best selling Vampire Academy series. It was published on 12 February 2013 by Penguin. I purchased this book.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BOTH FOR THIS BOOK AND PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES IN THIS REVIEW.

PLOT

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she is struggling to decide between following her Alchemist teachings - or her heart.

Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch, a former Alchemist who is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought.

There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for the person attacking powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood - or else she might be next.

WHY I BOUGHT THIS

It is hard to believe but I think I love Bloodlines more than Vampire Academy, I put this down to the fact that even though I love VA series I was never really a fan of Rose Hathaway and how she came across through the series though reading about her adventures and the world of dhampirs and Moroi was more than enough to keep me reading, all the characters felt so real as did the politics of high school and beyond. Bloodlines took it to the next level with Sydney as a protagonist I could really understand and a great supporting cast including of course Adrian Ivashkov.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I really had been eagerly awaiting this instalment to see the fallout after THAT kiss and all the unresolved feelings on Sydney’s side plus I want to learn more about what makes Sydney so special in terms of what has been hinted at with her anti-strigoi blood. Well at least I got an answer to one of my questions in The Indigo Spell.

Adrian has come a long way from the immature and over indulged aristocrat we first met in Frostbite. He’s still a lot of those things but now he is brave and driven. Sydney has changed too still very socially awkward but starting to show signs of being empowered. Nowhere more apparent than in dealing with the most controversial aspect of the Bloodlines series so far that of her issues with her own body image.

I can remember when I went looking through some book blogger reviews of earlier Bloodlines books the anger a lot of those reviewers felt at Sydney’s obvious issues with her body image and the fact that she constantly compared herself to Moroi girls. It might be a case of too little too late but I can see where the author is coming from in discussing a problem that has all too real counterparts in the real world and then showing how a strong young woman can overcome those issues as Sydney starts to in The Indigo Spell.

The question of Sydney’s blood seems to have been all but ignored in this book which is a shame but it is not like there isn’t enough going other than that to keep readers enthralled. I guess that it might become a plot point nearer the end of the series so we’ll just to wait.

Readers should be warned that there is less Jill in this than say compared to the first book but we do get to see a bit of her and see that she is taking after her half sister. I really like Jill always have since Vampire Academy she was always being underestimated even by her friends and we just see more of how strong she really is.

The witchcraft storyline just shows how much Sydney is changing now challenging the values of everything she was raised on. I think this is the central theme of the book Sydney’s growing independence even though clearly she has been self reliant for a long time. Now that the magic is well and truly out of the picnic basket it should be interesting to see what happens next with Sydney especially with what happens at the end of the book.

The Indigo Spell is a great read and another wonderful instalment in the Bloodlines series that goes a long way to answering the critics of the earlier two books and I can definitely recommend the book and the series.