Dusting Off the Shelf: Letter V

26 Jun

My planned V film was a miss because it turned out I had already seen it. But completely forgotten. So… I’ve been hunting for a replacement. Netflix hooked me up with Vampire Academy, but it took a few attempts to watch the whole thing… So I’m finally back, and ready to tell you all about it!

Synopsis: Two teenagers who ran away from their swanky academy are brought back to face the ridicule of running away and having to find a way to fit back into the high school mold… oh, and one of them is a vampire princess who could be in line to rule the vampire clans when the current queen kicks the bucket, assuming that the things that drove them away a year ago don’t kill them first. Also, there is a hot Russian guard.

Additionally, I was surprised to find Cameron Monaghan. He made a lovely “Ducky”-type. Which is good to know because he makes a super creepy Joker type on Gotham. The film also starred Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky, and Sarah Hyland.

Why I chose this film: As I mentioned above, my planned V title was a dud as I had already watched it and it wasn’t memorable. Not too much else jumped out at me as a V title until I found this. I looked cheap, cheesy, was a teenage vampire drama, and had Gabriel Byrne in it.

Yeah, I didn’t really see any other choice, either. It was pretty clear this was gonna be my V.

I gathered that this is based on young adult book series, but unlike most of the ones that get made into movies (even cheap direct to video ones) bore me. I was amused. Enough so I actually cared when Rose got shot down by the Russian.

Will I watch it again: You know what… if I found this film on a channel, randomly playing, I would sit down and watch til the end. I enjoyed it. There was some good snark. There was some decent action (and some decent acting). And I was even amused by the mythology redo (basically there are three levels of vamp- the royals, their guards, and the evil vamps who are basically the blood thirsty monsters). Also, Gabriel Byrne.

Why you should watch it too (or run far away!): Let me lay it out in simple terms- do you like cheesy, cheap, vampire movies? If you answered yes, maybe, or made some kind of affirmative-ish sound, then you would likely enjoy or at least not feel upset about seeing this one. If you answered no or made a weird, negative sounding noise, then you should let it pass by. It’s pretty simple.