★★★★☆

I fell in love with Vampire Academy. It’s something of a blend between 2 Broke Girls and cheesy vampire movies of the Vincent Price era. There is a tough, wise cracking brunet and a tall leggy, playing it mostly straight, blonde married to a series of sometimes hilarious plot twists. Oh yes. Let’s not forget that the tall leggy blonde is in line to be queen.

Reportedly there has been quite a groundswell of “fan fiction” following this movie. Some have even made their own movies. Yes, this is what happens when a rabid cult fan base surrounds a work and the studio does not provide the customary sucky sequel to kill off the fan base.

Here’s the sad reality with teenage coming of age movie franchises. There are only a scant few years your star(s) can get away with playing that role. Eventually makeup and wardrobe cannot hide the fact your lead is pushing thirty and still in high school/college. (Obviously nobody reading this believes that Ron Howard could play Opie Taylor today, right?)

The Studio Problem

The other sad reality is that after a massively successful “teen era” movie the star(s) tend to want to move onto more mature and usually higher paying roles. Most studios aren’t willing to gamble multiple years on a kids movie franchise, unless it happens to already have a massive book series behind it, ala “Harry Potter,” so they don’t sign a multi-year-multi-movie deal up front.

Studios should have went that way with this show. They could have easily turned this into a trilogy ending with Lissa Dragomir ascending to the throne. They could have also explored more deeply this unique concept of “good vampires which are mortal” vs “bad vampires which are both blood thirsty and immortal.” Given the cult status this movie has now, had they done a back to back trilogy studios would have made a lot of money. Some reports have this movie costing thirty million to make while only pulling in eleven in America, but, that’s Hollywood accounting. According to some news reports one of the original Star Wars actors has yet to be paid because that movie never made any money.

Vampire Academy – Summary

Vampire Academy is a joyous, fun film which will have a place in your heart forever. It should also be in your movie collection for those really bad days when you need a good laugh and reassurance the human race is still worth saving. You know, Wednesdays.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.