4.5 out of 5 stars.

Despite the terrible marketing and cliché name, Vampire Academy, like the book it was based off of, was a fantastic movie.

Even though I’d read the book beforehand, I really enjoyed this movie. It had action, it had humor, and a tad bit of romance.

But most of all, this movie is about friendship. Rose Hathaway, half-vampire or dhampir, has had a physic link with Lissa Dragomir, good vampire or Moroi, ever since the Lissa saved her life. After a tragic car accident, Lissa became the last of her line, taking the title Princess because of it.

Rose began to notice that Lissa was depressed and irrational after the crash. Lissa told her she felt like she was being watched. Urged by a teacher, Rose takes Lissa out of St. Vladimir’s Academy, the safe school that the two girls attended.

Two years later, they’re brought back by Guardians (dhampirs who train to protect the Moroi) and drama ensues.

In the time Rose and Lissa have been away, things have changed at St. Vladmir’s, and they have to figure out their places again.

This movie would have been five stars if it hadn’t moved quite so fast in the beginning. Zoey Deutch really captured Rose, and Danila Kozlovsky, with his authentic Russian accent, played a good Dimitri. The only thing I had a problem with was the speed it moved at and some of the things that changed from the book (Sonya Karp, for one, didn’t stand in a cave with an army of evil Strigoi vampires at the end, for one.)

Otherwise, this movie was fantastic. I walked out of the theater happy despite the money I’d spent on it, which is saying something considering that the food is ridiculously overpriced.

People, I ask you to see this movie, because I really want there to be another one and from the reports so far, there isn’t going to be. I will repeat what every VAFamily member has been repeating since it came out: Vampire Academy is not Twilight. It is not Harry Potter. There are no sparkly vampires, it in no way involves creepy guys watching the main characters as they sleep, and it’s more about friendship and sisterhood than romance.