Ally, Melissa, and I finally went to see the big screen adaptation of Vampire Academy over the weekend, and though this post represents only my take on it, as a group, the movie left us less than impressed. All three of us have read the entire series and loved it, so naturally we had to check out the movie. We'd heard that the reviews had been less than kind, so we didn't exactly enter the theater expecting to be blown away. That still didn't lessen our feelings of being let down that yet another beloved book series of ours didn't translate well to the screen.
I understand that filmmakers have a bridge to gap between movie goers who've read the book and those who haven't, but I thought VA went overboard with the exposition. There was a lot of telling rather than showing; the opening scenes with Rose and Lissa in hiding were very chatty. When the differences between the Moroi, dhampirs, and Strigoi were discussed, each term flashed across the screen. If there were concerns about non-readers of the book grasping what was going on, I think those efforts would have been better directed toward making the story flow more smoothly. The movie felt choppy to me, which I suppose is a challenge that all book-to-film adaptations face: what to cut. VA, in my opinion, really could have benefited from keeping a little more material from the novel to assist in transitioning between scenes. For example, if I hadn't already been familiar with Ms. Karp's story from the book, I'm not sure her appearances in the movie would have made as much sense.
The dialogue in the film was definitely less than spectacular, which is such a shame because that is not at all the case in the books. There was an obvious attempt to keep Rose's wit, but the lines felt forced, not because of their delivery but because of how they were written. At least Rose called Dimitri "Comrade," which still makes me laugh.
Ah, Dimitri. I'm sorry to say that I found his screen counterpart disappointing. His role in the movie seemed a little downplayed to me; he just didn't command the presence he does in the novels. Christian probably had as much screen time as Dimitri did, which was fine because he was one of the better developed characters in the film. Mason was very sweet in his handful of appearances (alas, no Eddie), and I also thought Natalie was spot-on, right down to what happens in the end.
The action scenes were very good and the Strigoi suitably creepy, but there was also a great deal of emphasis on the school drama at St. Vladimir's, like Mia's efforts to turn Lissa into a social outcast. Yes, that's all in the book, but whereas the book seamlessly blends the school stuff with the paranormal stuff, the movie didn't pull it off as deftly. Overall, this was an underwhelming adaptation of an amazing book that I hope doesn't get judged too harshly by anyone who saw the film first.
