Vampire Academy 2014

There's scene in the new Vampire Academy trailer where a female vampire or vampire/human hybrid kicks or throws a car really far.

Anybody else see it?
The film star Zooey Deutch as human/vampire hybrid who protects a "good" female vampire from evil vampires. Both vampires and halfbreeds both have superstrength and speed.

I didn't see anyone kick or throw a car. There were some people being kicked/punched away real far. Did you mean throw someone ONTO a car?

Saw this movie which is out in America. I suspect it will come out into theaters int the rest of world as well. So..

Here's my review:

One of the things they teach you in screenwriting is this- When you make a movie about a same sex friendship you are really telling the exact same story as a love story-same beats, same moods, same everything except there's no kiss at the end.

The problem with this is in 2014 you kind of say "Hey wheres the kiss?"- There really is nothing wrong with a gay relationship

Which is the central issue of The movie Vampire Academy. The movie is a story about the relationship between Catherine Hathway(Zoey Deutch), who is sworn to protect the the vampire queen to be Lyrissa (Lucy Fry ) . Catherine is a badass ubergirl. Lyrissa is at times barely functional. Yet Catherine clearly loves her in a weird reinfieldish way, and Lyrissa- who doesn't want to be a vampire but clearly doesn't know how not to be- loves her back. There is an elaborate high school story of how it pushes them apart and together-And The movie really should end with a kiss.

And to the movies credit-it knows this. One of the movies subplots involves vampires drinking blood-and who do you think lyrissas favorite victim is? Blood is a metaphor for sex. And in way it pushes it apart there's a weirdness. One of the movies first line is "Werid Doesn't begin to cut it", and beyond the blood and the fangs its there.

Instead Catherine falls as a beard for Danial Kolovsky-another mark larger protector-who looks old enough to be her father, and is played as a kind of vaugely eastern europe weirdo. The onion Av club compared him to Tommy Wisseu from the Room- except much less charismatic- and i will say this in 2014(to its credit) it is a lot more weird to see a teenage girl kissing a much older teacher figure then another girl.

And the movie knows this as well.The movies flaws are its strengths in someway. In a movie about vampires the most horrific shot is kolovsky in his underwear, which feels a bit like actual horror. It made me feel unconfterable like a horror movie should.

The movies problem is that the stuff around it is not good. this is an extremely expositiory movie-there is exposition on exposition about protectors(dhampyres), good vampires(molori), evil vampires(strigori) and bad good vampires, as well as endless high school bulshit. And for a movie that spends a lot of time with it--it well never seems remotely intrested in it. theres a scene early on where they clearly ADRed-More exposition!! A lot of the scenes where it is expalined and explored in a mystery it doesn't really care about. Which is almost a shame in away as the scene where the high school plotiline is resolved also has a great weirdsubtext.

Which i guess is what i like. Theres a fun chemistry between Catherine And Lyrissa, and Lucy Fry gives Lyrissa a kind of werid eurotrash, but innocent performance that always looks as if fangs are coming out of her mouth even when there not. As she learns to embrace her powers, she looks as if she has the kind of fun a teenage girl gets when she drinks to much. Zoey Duetch is great as someone who knows she should probably ignore her bullshit, and all the high school bulshit around her-but well can't. Shes also funny. This is basically a comedy, and its a funny one.

And shes great as a badass. This is an ubergirl movie, and Duetch really is good as an effortless warrior-not a oneliner ripley type but a sane woman who can really kick ass. Shes great at it, at seeming as if fighting is something natural to her.

Unfortunately the fights themselves aren't great. This is superstrength as weightlessness-when she punches and people fly around it never really feels as if it connects. The fights are for the most part poorly choreographed and put together, and don't really work. Also it should be noted. This is the first movie in a series of six books(which i suspect probably aren't going to get made). So she never really gets to deliver the final killing blow.

But She tries. and the final battle where she fights an other evil vampire ubergirl is kind of fun, especially as its been built up.

Theres a lot of good stuff in this movie. And i do i guess in recommenced it. It gets bogged down a lot. If the movie had been willing to cut out 50% of the exposition and not such a slave to the novel and just let it be the love story it wanted to be it may have been better. But i don't know. but as a vampire horror comedy-theres something here, perhaps because its weird is fun.