Vampire Academy Movie Review

The announcement of a Vampire Academy movie came shortly after I had finished and fallen madly in love with the series. The casting came choices came out and I was middle of the road when it came to my feelings but I was going solely on looks, I didn't know their acting abilities.  I was even more excited when I sat in a crowded Barnes & Noble conference room and heard Richelle Mead give details on the progress, saying how she felt the casting was perfect and that she herself fan-girled over scenes and then the trailer came out. I distinctly remember watching it on my husbands birthday, while in the theater to watch Catching Fire. The trailer began and my husband leaned over and asked "have you read this book?" I looked at him and said "uh no?" In took me a second to realize that the trailer was for my beloved Vampire Academy and then I cringed. Being melodramatic.. my heart broke a little, because it seemed nothing like what I would have expected. 
I went home a watched the trailer a few more times, still cringing. As the days grew closer and the hype started building up, the trailers playing more; I found myself NEEDING to go see the movie. So Thursday, night I begged my Mom to go with me (I knew my husband wouldn't pay $26 bucks to go see it) Finally, on Saturday she agreed to go with me. I told her how excited I was, that this movie wouldn't be her cup of tea and that I was worried that the movie wouldn't be that great... but it couldn't be too bad.
After reading countless reviews of how great the movie was, my confidence had gained and I went into the theater with an open mind. Unfortunately, all my worries were true. In fact, they were worse! I was hoping they saved all the cheesiness was the trailers, but the movie was awfully cheesy the whole way through and not in a we are trying to be cheesy ha-ha way. More like a.. we think this is funny kind of way. 
Surprisingly the plot line was actually very accurate to the book, which rarely happens with book to movie adaptions and I can say that is a positive and probably the only positive to this book. I found the casting off too. Although, I did like Zoey as Rose, I felt her snarkiness was more for attention then for book Rose, who simple just is snarky. Dimitri was sexy but something wasn't right. His hair slightly too long, his accent too thick, he body to big. I don't know what it was but I wasn't swooning. I already was feeling Lucy as Vasilia in the trailers, so that performance didn't shock me. What did shock me was the lad who played Christian. In the trailers, I cringed, but his performance was definitely better than expected.
With all that being said. I can't recommend this movie. Save your money. I truly felt bad for my mom who looked miserable through out the movie and if it wasn't my love of the books, I would have gotten up and left the theater half way through. It really felt like torture. On the brightside, a young girl with her mom, said she wanted to read the book, I gave my two sense and told her it was a must read. To which her mom said... "okay lets go buy it tonight!"