Vampire Academy

Way back in 2001 we met Harry Potter, a young innocent boy who found out he was a wizard and was sent to a special school for wizards. Then in 2010 we met Percy Jackson, a young innocent boy who found out he was a demigod and was sent to a special school for demigods. So what’s latest trend of films to clone the Harry Potter franchise? A special school for vampires.

I’m talking about the latest teen target film Vampire Academy, starring Zoey Dutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky and directed by Mark Waters who also helmed Mean Girls.

Instead of going through the usual formula of being introduced to a young innocent girl and then attend a special school for vampires, we’re thrown straight into the vampire school with the characters already established.

Vampire Academy also tries to incorporate a Game of Thrones style of storytelling by focusing on different types of races all at war with each other.

This is the main focus of the film, as we meet Rose who is a Dhampir (half human, half vampire) she is also a guardian and must protect her friend, who is a princess, from the Strigoi, who are the evil vampires. Rose and her friends belong to a class of vampires called the Moroi; they’re the good guys.

Now this might all sound sort of enticing and it might sound good enough to watch, but this film is downright 

terrible.

The plot is just horrible, so is the thinly written script. I honestly could not feel a connection of any kind with any character due to some shoddy performances. The movie takes constant swipes at Twilight yet the irony is - and I never thought I’d say this - Vampire Academy makes Twilight look like a masterpiece.

The film’s main audience is obviously teenagers, especially teenage girls trying to fill the void now that the Twilight fad is thankfully over. However, the film fails to connect with audiences and although I’m no teenager so I have no authority over this claim, but the fact that this movie has bombed worldwide seems to be a good indication.

Mark Waters also tried to incorporate a Mean Girls type of theme again in this film, however, Mean Girls was brilliant due to good script writing and the whole point of the movie was the stereotypical teenage girl behaviour. Vampire Academy had nothing to do with that but Mark Waters tried to add some conflict which just adds more unnecessary weight to the plot which ultimately slows the movie down.

Vampire Academy is a film which tried to enter a niche market and ultimately failed and the disappointing performance at the Box Office has sealed the coffin on any potential sequels.

So with that in mind, Vampire Academy gets a blood clotting 2 out of 10