5 Young Adult Series That Deserved (Way) Better Cinematic Introductions
4. Vampire Academy (2014)
Vampire Academy nailed the lead with Zoey Deutch as the badass half-vamp guardian type Rose Hathaway – and that’s pretty much where any chance that this series would become the next Twilight ended. I was a huge fan of the books, but the initial film strayed a scene too many from its counterpart to really grab my attention. Instead of sticking to what fans fell in love with in the first place, the cinematic adaptation came across strongly as if they were trying too hard. Of course making creative changes to make the movie more appealing to a wider audience makes sense, but failing to hit all the high points and making up your own does not.
As fans of the book series can attest, one of the most compelling parts of the series, and really the backbone of the entire thing, was the relationship between Rose and her teacher turned lover, Dimitri. Unfortunately, that’s where casting and the director failed in a huge way. There was nothing about the chemistry between Deutch’s character and Dimitri (Danila Kozlovsky) that even remotely came close to being believable, let alone mirroring the text. It was disappointing, to say the least.
Even though I would have liked to see if the production team could have improved upon their initial offering (I did back the second film on IndieGogo), I’m not surprised that it didn’t go anywhere.
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