I can't give a real review, since I was very tired when I went to see this. I was fighting the urge to nod off for the first half hour, then finally I did doze off for around ten minutes or so. After that, I was fine and perfectly aware for the second half of the movie.
It was somewhat amusing in parts, but there was nothing that makes me want to go back and see the first half with a clearer head. I tend to think that the movie is not quite as clever as a lot of people seem to be giving it credit for, but since I missed a brief section, I won't say that with absolute certainty. Maybe I'll catch those few minutes on cable some day.
This movie did not get off to a good start, but it overcame that to become a watchable, although by no means exceptional, bit of entertainment.
I found it very difficult to get into the movie for the first twenty minutes. Much of this time was filled with a massive exposition dump done via voiceover. The nature of several different supernatural creatures and other information about the universe of the film is explained all at once, almost as if the audience were sitting in a lecture hall. Most first installments of fantasy-themed series feature a character being introduced to a new world, allowing the audience to discover that world along with the character. In "Vampire Academy", the protagonist is already a part of the supernatural world, leaving her to explain the intricacies of it to the audience. I wish the screenwriter could have found a more organic way to show this information rather than telling it in such an unartful manner.
Fortunately, the film does eventually get past this opening and becomes a pleasant enough diversion. It has some trouble juggling different genres. It tries at times to be somewhat serious, while at others makes attempts at satirizing typical high school movies. I like it when films successfully pull off multiple genres, but "Vampire Academy" often didn't seem to know quite what it was trying do with particular scenes. Many of the moments designed to poke fun at similar scenes in other high school movies are not fully fleshed out. They'll establish an event or setting, like a "cafeteria" where vampires suck blood from human volunteers, but the joke never goes beyond that initial comparison. If you're going to have a cafeteria scene, why not show what a food fight would look like? The film is more successful when telling its main storyline. The central mystery is nothing truly great, but it managed to keep me interested. I also always enjoy seeing performances from Gabriel Byrne, who I've been a big fan of since the first season of "In Treatment".
In short, "Vampire Academy" was not a particularly good movie, but, after the exposition dump at the beginning, I did manage to enjoy myself.
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