Vampire Academy Movie Review

February 7, 20143 Comments

Wrapping up the day of Vampire Academy posts (check out my recap of the mall tour in Los Angeles here and my recap of the premiere here). Now a spoiler free review of the movie! Read on…

Vampire Academy

Rated:

Rated PG-13 for violence, more about bloody images, find sexual content and language

Directed By:

Mark Waters

Cast:

Zoey Deutch, Danila Kozlovsky, Lucy Fry, Dominic Sherwood, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Hyland, Sami Gayle.

Find the rest on IMDB here.

IMDB Movie Synopsis:

Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely within our world. Her legacy is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. This is her story.

My Review:

I am literally blown away at how well they did with this movie. While it wasn’t absolutely perfect, I thought they did a wonderful job with it.

First off, I wanted to talk about going into the movie with an open mind. I do not say this to scare you, but I honestly think with that attitude, I enjoyed the movie more. I was high on adrenaline, after being on the red carpet and sneaking pictures with cast members in the lobby of the theater, but when I went into the theater, I told myself, “open mind”. And I’m really glad I did. I think there are too many people judging the movie by the stills and the trailer and I think thats detrimental to the success of the film. YA adaptations aren’t doing well in the theaters and unless we go out and support them, they’ll just stop making them.

Oh, one more thing, with the whole “Mean Girls” thing. A lot of people don’t like that they keep putting emphasis on that, but I like it. It has the humor of Mean Girls, which is GREAT. I think it was hilarious and I’ll talk more about that later. But also, like I said, we NEED this movie to do well to get Frostbite and people love Mean Girls and I applaud anything that gets them into the theater.

Okay rant off. That being said, I went in open minded, and also with the reminder that the first book is much more lighthearted than the rest of the series.

I was immediately struck at how well each of the actors understood their characters. I was amazed at how well Zoey was Rose, Danila was Dimitri and so on. I think I was most impressed with Dominic as Christian. Christian is one of the characters that I’ve always loved and I think he rocked it big time. After meeting the cast the day before, and seeing how nice and genuine they were, I was so impressed with how well they knew their characters and how well they portrayed them in the movie. I will now think of most of these actors and actresses when I go to read the book. They just captured them so well.

I also think there was an incredible balance of action and romance. The romance building between Christian and Lissa and the subtle one between Rose and Dimitri were just as how I’d imagine it in the novel. Its important and its there but its not overwhelming. The movie is not wrapped in the romance and I’m okay with that. There was a ton of action. I loved watching both Rose and Dimitri kick some serious ass in this movie. They really did the story of Rose’s return and work to become caught up on her guardian skills so well.

I really think the movie was about the friendship between Rose and Lissa, just as it should be. Vampire Academy is a huge story about friendship and loyalty, and that is definitely what they got. The friendship between Lissa and Rose has its sweet moments, it has the moments where Rose is protective and it has hilarious moments. Its perfect.

Which leads me to one of my favorite parts of the movie: the humor. The chemistry between the actors led to some well-placed lines and me laughing in my seat the whole movie. Myself and the 7 other people I was with were rolling around in our seats, laughing out loud. I’m pretty sure we were the loudest people in the theatre and I wish I knew the casts’ reactions to our reactions haha. It was a VERY funny movie. I really could not stop laughing.

There were minor things that bothered me. I was hoping for a bit more Mason, but if we get Frostbite, I have hopes we’ll get way more Mason. I think I need to rewatch the movies with subtitles because of all the accents haha. Dominic wasn’t too bad because he spoke loud and clear so I got all of his lines, same with Lucy. Danila talked really really low for some reason so sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was hearing what he was saying correctly. He just needed to speak up a bit but he really rocked as Danila. I thought the end scene (I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t read the book) was a little rushed, and the lust charm scene was a bit cheesy but all in all, it was only small details that bothered me and none of them were deal breakers for the movie in the slightest.

And now that I’ve watched the movie, I want to watch the movie again and I want to reread the books again. I’m all obsessed with VA right now haha.

Rating:

4 out of 5

* * * * *

So get out there this weekend and see this movie! It was SO enjoyable to watch and, as a VA fan, I was incredibly impressed with it. I would love to see more of the series, I would absolutely love to see Frostbite (admittedly because more Zoey Deutch and we could cast Adrian!!!) and the only the way to get sequels for further movies would be to go out and see this one! So go go go go and tell me what you think when you do!

Vampire Academy Week: The Los Angeles World Premiere!

February 6, 2014February 5, 20144 Comments

Hello all! So you have noticed on the Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, decease or on the blog, recipe that its officially Vampire Academy week! Tomorrow is the official release of the movie, visit this site and I’ve been recapping the awesomeness that I experienced this weekend. Earlier today, I recapped the mall tour and afterparty, which you can read about if you click here.

Stay tuned later today for a spoiler free review of the movie!

For now, let’s talk about the premiere!

Me, Sylvia, Alex and Sylvia’s friend Alex met up with the rest of the gang from the day before and secured our spots on the barricade. We got some GOOD spots too. The security told us we couldn’t be on the barricade and get tickets to see the movie, but we’re fangirls and we so made it happen.

While we waited, we could see them setting up the red carpet. Its not that exciting haha. They all seem to look the same. Okay, I just realized how that made me sound and I immediately apologize haha. They just aren’t too exciting to look at until the stars show up haha. But it can be kind of pretty!

The movie theater looking all ready to go!

I was getting so excited for this :) We all started standing up, getting ready for the cast to arrive on the carpet!

Me, Alex, Mina, Sylvia, and Alex waiting for the stars! We had such prime spots!

Snagged another slightly blurry, but epic selfie with the gorgeous Dominic Sherwood!

I was SO excited when Danila came over to greet the fans. I had taken a picture with him at the afterparty the night before but I needed a signature on my poster! And okay, I was a brat and totally scored another picture. Who wouldnt!

I took about a hundred pictures of Danila signing. How often am I going to see this Russian god ;) He was SO sweet and tried to sign for everyone. I don’t know that he GOT everyone, but he definitely tried.

This is the only picture I managed to get of Sarah Hyland! She came over to the fan barricade later but I missed her when I went inside for the movie! I kept trying to track her down but it just didn’t happen :( That’s okay though. She looked gorgeous and ROCKED as Natalie.

Danila’s interview. He was SO sweet and genuine. When she asked him who his Valentine was, he asked all the fans to be his Valentine. And he talked so respectfully of Zoey. Its obviously that they’ve created such a great friendship together. If they weren’t taken, I’d want them together so bad haha.

Zoey and Danila. She was talking about him in her interview and was like “where he is” and he came running up to give her a hug, which was so freakin adorable and before he left again, he gave her a kiss on the hand, like a prince in a Disney movie or something. Everyone in the fan section sighed with happiness haha.

After we got some signatures and pictures on the red carpet, we went into the movie theater, and ran into some other stars…like a TON of Disney Channel stars.

First, Bella Thorne from Shake It Up!

Peyton List from Jessie!

Oh and then Cassandra and I ran into Cameron again!

So I just learned last night that Lea Thompson, the EPIC Lea Thompson is Zoey’s mom! So she was at the premiere. I LOVE the Back to the Future movies and died when I got to take this picture with her! DIED. So awesome. She’s super cute in Switched at Birth too.

Randomly ran into Holland Roden, who plays Lydia in Teen Wolf. My sister is a HUGE fan so I had to stop and take a picture with her.

Me and Zoey’s boyfriend, Avan Jogia, who has been on shows like Victorious and Twisted.

Me and Cassandra managed to catch Lucy Fry before the movie started!

After we tackled some of the stars in the actual movie theater, we grabbed our free drinks and popcorn and went to our seats to watch the movie.

There is a review coming soon, but I’ll tell you this: the movie was amazing. The romance and the action balanced each other perfectly, the actors and actresses really embodied their characters, and understood them and the humor was to DIE for. I could NOT stop laughing. I barely ate any popcorn because I was too busy laughing. Definitely check out my review later!

After the movie, we went back to the lobby and tried to find some more stars, and we did find a few!

First I found Ashley Charles, who plays Jesse in the film. He signed my poster too, so that was pretty cool!

I also got a picture and autograph from Dominique Tipper, who played Guardian Gabriella in the film. She was SO excited to meet fans, and she kept asking us how we liked the movie. She was seriously SO adorable.

I got three more autographs on my poster: Dominique, Danila and Ashley. I am SO happy that I was able to get Danila’s. That was my goal for the night, definitely!

So that was the red carpet premiere :) It was SUCH a blast, and definitely was up there with the City of Bones premiere back in August. It was amazing!

Don’t forget to check out the review of the movie coming later today and look out this weekend for a giveaway!

Vampire Academy Week: Mall Tour Meet and Greet and Music Afterparty!

February 6, 2014February 5, 20143 Comments

Hello there my friends! This week on What A Nerd Girl Says is Vampire Academy week. Monday and Tuesday was all about Vampire Academy. I spent hours waiting for a meet and greet, this partied with the cast, remedy and got to see the movie at the red carpet premiere and it was all incredible. Now I’m ready to share it all with you!

The first event of Vampire Academy week was the Mall Tour stop at the Grove in Los Angeles.

Sylvia (Fangirl Feeels), Erin (That One Geek Girl) and I arrived at the Grove SUPER early, around 6 am, and were by far the first people there. We have a tendency to do that. When we got there, they were just beginning to set up for the event!

They started an official line at around 9 am and we were able to get our wristbands! Yay for wristbands!

The day was spent with Sylvia, Erin, and my other fangirl friends, Cassandra, Mina, Jeanette, Jade, and Alex. We all had such a fun time hanging out and getting food and talking about fandoms and books. When we all get together, we have such a fun time. We all instantly bond because of our love for books and all things nerd.

Awkward elevator selfie….which is also SUPER awesome!

The Vampire Academy was really cool! They set up hairstylists and makeup artists to make us absolutely fabulous.

Me and my beautiful friend Cassandra after our makeovers!

The people that were holding the event had professional photographers and once you got all glammed up in your makeup and hair, you could put on some accessories (check out the tiara!) and take some pictures. They asked us to take a “serious” pose and it was just so ridiculous that I will never forget this picture. Its just too fantastic for life. It reminded us all of those glamour shots you could take with your best friends at the mall in junior high haha.

The VIPs were able to get these SUPER amazing Vampire Academy sweatshirts. My friends and I tried so hard throughout the whole event to get our hands on some and we all ended up with one! Which made me SO happy! I had to answer a trivia question and it was who wrote the books. Not exactly hard haha.

Then it was time for the actual meet and greet. Now I’ve been to a ton of signings and one thing that is always a bummer is the whole thing with pictures. Because most events get all LAME with photos and practically chop your head off when you even think of touching your phone while meeting the guests. This event was SO refreshingly different. They had a professional photographer taking pictures of us, and us with the cast. SO perfect.

My friends got some pictures too though :)

Me walking up to talk to Cameron Monaghan, who plays Mason in the film. He was SO incredibly sweet. He introduced himself, like “Hi I’m Cameron” and me, being insanely awkward, I just went “I know!” in a squeaky voice.

I think I’m discussing my tattoos with the cast. I was talking to Cameron and Lucy Fry when Dominic Sherwood noticed my Deathly Hallows tattoo and then Zoey Deutch (MY LOVE!) noticed my Divergent tattoo, and then I decided to show them the rest haha. It was funny!

I think this was when I told Zoey that I had a massive crush on her and Dominic started laughing and it was just all fun. Straight up, I do have a crush on Zoey. She was so sweet. I was like “I have a crush on you” and she was like “I have a crush on you too!” which I know she only said to be nice but pssssh I’ll never live it down haha.

It’s kind of blurry but you can kind of see me hugging Zoey Deutch. Basically the best thing that happened that night. I died.

The beautiful professional picture of me with the cast: Sami Gayle (Mia), Dominic Sherwood (Christian), Zoey (Rose), Lucy (Lissa), and Cameron (Mason). I was so excited that we got two more cast members in the addition of Cameron and Sami!

The photographer caught my hug with Dominic, which made me so happy. SO freakin cute.

After the actual meet and greet, we all converged to charge our phones and basically freak out about how awesome it was to meet the five of them. We waited a bit to go back, because we wanted to grab some extra posters for some giveaways (keep an eye out this weekend!) and then we got to take some selfies with the cast, which is always fun!

The absolutely GORGEOUS Dominic Sherwood. He was absolutely amazing as Christian. His eyes are mesmerizing. I can’t handle his eyes.

The super adorable Cameron Monaghan :D

After the mall tour stop, Sylvia, Erin and I met up with our friend Marla in Hollywood at this club called Lure to attend the SUPER awesome music afterparty, where the cast was going to make an appearance, and where Iggy Azalea performed as well. It was SUPER fun. We danced, and partied, had some free drinks (with red bull, which was SUPER weird haha and made me hyper).

Sylvia and I! We were so silly and accidentally grabbed drinks with whiskey in them. If you’ve never had whiskey before, its absolutely disgusting. We tried to handle it but…yeah, that didn’t go well. So we ditched the drinks and went to go get better ones. As we’re walking up to the bar, we realize the cast had arrived. It was so loud and Sylvia was pointing something out to me, which I thought was Dominic Sherwood. I was like “yes, I know, he’s there, he’s hot, we just saw him” and she was like “No, Sara, its Danila!!” and I basically fainted with excitement.

We weren’t expecting Danila to appear because he had just flown in from Russia. You could tell he was feeling tired and laidback, just in jeans, t-shirt and hoodie and he was hanging out with his friends. I was nervous and anxious to interrupt him but I knew if I walked away, all my fangirls friends (and YOU guys) would never let me live it down.

So I asked Danila for a picture and a hug and it was awesome. I didn’t think it was possible but he is even better looking in person than in the pictures. Seriously guys. Swoon!

Then I spent the next few minutes stalking the rest of the cast to get some selfies with them!

Me and the beautiful Lucy Fry!

I love this picture of me and Sami Gayle. I love that she plays Mia, who is SUCH a bitch, but she’s such a sweet person. Isn’t it funny how that works out haha.

I was SO determined to get a picture with Zoey and I got one! She is too beautiful for life.

They introduced the cast on stage, and I had to share this picture because Zoey looks so cute! She is seriously a goofball.

Then Iggy Azalea performed. I honestly had no idea who she was, and she’s not really the music I listen to AT ALL but she was seriously so pretty and so charismatic on stage and I super enjoyed it. It was fun to dance to, and I was hopped up on some red bull haha.

My poster! Signed by Zoey and Lucy on top, and then Dominic, Sami and Cameron on the bottom!

* * * * * *

All in all, Monday was a SERIOUSLY successful day! I had a blast, and meeting the cast and hanging out with my friends all day. I got no sleep, barely ate, and was SUPER exhausted by the end of the night but it was so so so worth it. And the next day was the premiere. Come back later for the recap of that event!

To see all the pictures of the event, check out the album on Facebook here.

WWW Wednesday

February 5, 20145 Comments

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme, troche hosted by Should Be Reading.

The three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

What are you currently reading?

I literally JUST downloaded this to my Nook so I’m excited to dive into it and read it :) It should be GREAT.

What did you just recently finish reading?

Yeah, shop I re-read it again. I just can’t really explain how much this book means to me. It became one of my favorites of all time SO quickly. I have never read a book like this before, malady that understands the way Harry Potter makes me feel. Cath is me. She’s awkward and unsure but she gets online and she starts to write and she gets lost in the Simon Snow world and it was so beautiful. I felt so connected with Cath, it was ridiculous. So yeah, I read it again haha.

What do you think you’ll be reading next?

Can I be honest on this one? I have NO idea. I’m in the worst reading slump that I think I’ve ever been in. I have so many books to read and I just can’t seem to read them. I hope after Cress that I’ll be able to read again. Seriously. I would read anything right now just to get back in the groove haha.

* * * * * *

What is everyone reading this week? Share in the comments!

February Book Events

February 2, 2014February 1, 2014Leave a comment

I’m so sorry this took so long. Check out the February events! If you know of any that are NOT on this list, web please let me know!

February 1st:

No Events

February 2nd:

No Events

February 3rd:

Los Angeles, CA: Vampire Academy Cast Meet and Greet at The Grove at 12 noon (pick up wristbands)

February 4th:

Huntington Beach, CA: Robin Benway at Barnes and Noble: Bella Terra at 7 pm

Los Angeles, CA: Vampire Academy Movie Premiere

February 5th:

Santa Rosa, CA: Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando at Copperfields Montgomery Village at 4 pm

February 6th:

Houston, TX: Robin Benway and Megan Miranda at Blue Willow Bookshop at 7 pm

February 7th:

No Events

February 8th:

Christiansburg, VA: Kiera Cass at Barnes and Noble at 4 pm

Orem, UT: Marissa Meyer at Barnes and Noble at 3 pm

February 9th:

Redondo Beach, CA: Marie Lu, Margaret Stohl, Amie Kaufman, Megan Spooner at Mysterious Galaxy at 2:30 pm

February 10th:

No Events

February 11th:

No Events

February 12th:

Fresno, CA: Kasie West at Petunia’s Place at 5:30 pm

New York, NY: Lauren Oliver at Books of Wonder at 6 pm

February 13th:

Asheville, NC: Fight for the Future Tour (Amie Kaufman, Megan Spooner, Lissa Price, Jodi Meadows) at Malaprop’s Bookstore at 7 pm

Frisco, TX: Neal Shusterman at Barnes and Noble at 7 pm

New York, NY: Marissa Meyer at Books of Wonder at 6 pm

February 14th:

Lewisville, TX: Marissa Meyer at Barnes and Noble at 7 pm

Los Angeles, CA: Gallifrey One at the LAX Marriott

February 15th:

Charlotte, NC: Fight for the Future Tour (Amie Kaufman, Megan Spooner, Beth Revis, Lissa Price and Jodi Meadows) at Park Road Books at 2 pm

Conroe, TX: Montgomery County Book Festival (Visit Website for Full List)

Hurst, TX: Neal Shusterman at Barnes and Noble at 3 pm

Los Angeles, CA: Gallifrey One at the LAx Marriott

February 16th:

Los Angeles CA: Gallifrey One at the LAX Marriott

Richmond, VA: Fight for the Future Tour (Amie Kaufman, Megan Spooner, Lissa Price and Jodi Meadows) at Fountain Bookstore at 2 pm

February 17th:

No Events

February 18th:

Alexandra, VA: Fight for the Future Tour (Amie Kaufman, Megan Spooner, Jodi Meadows and Lissa Price) at Hooray for Books at 7 pm

New York City, NY: The Dark Days Tour (Tahereh Mafi, Veronica Rossi and more) at the 92nd Street Y at 8:15 pm

Orlando, FL: Marissa Meyer at Barnes and Nobles at 7 pm

February 19th:

Asheville, NC: The Lovestruck Tour (Megan Shepherd, Megan Miranda, Robin Constantine, Kasie West) at Malaprop’s Bookstore at 7 pm

Washington DC: The Dark Days Tour at Bethesda Library at 7 pm

February 20th:

Brentwood, TN: Tahereh Mafi (Dark Days Tour) at Barnes and Noble at 6:30 pm

Raleigh, NC: The Lovestruck Tour (Megan Shepherd, Megan Miranda, Robin Constantine, Kasie West) at Quail Ridge Books at 7 pm

February 21st:

Chapel Hill, NC: The Lovestruck Tour (Megan Shepherd, Megan Miranda, Robin Constantine, Kasie West) at Fly Leaf Books at 7 pm

New Orleans, LA: Dark Days Tour Featuring Veronica Rossi, Tahereh Mafi, Sophie Jordan, Claudia Gray, Kiersten White at Octavia Books at 6 pm

February 22nd:

Greenville, SC: The Lovestruck Tour (Megan Shepherd, Megan Miranda, Robin Constantine, Kasie West) at Fiction Addiction at 4 pm

New York, NY: The Fight for the Future Tour featuring Amie Kaufman, Megan Spooner, Alexandra Bracken and Dan Krokos at Books of Wonder at 4 pm

February 23rd:

No Events

February 24th:

Decatur, GA: The Lovestruck Tour (Megan Shepherd, Megan Miranda, Robin Constantine, Kasie West) at Little Shop of Stories at 7 pm

Los Angeles, CA: Tahereh Mafi at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove at 7 pm

Redondo Beach, CA: Jessica Brody at Mysterious Galaxy for Unforgotten Launch Party at 7:30 pm

February 25th:

Highlands Ranch, CO: Neal Shusterman at Tattered Cover at 6 pm

February 26th:

No Events

February 27th:

MY BIRTHDAY!

San Diego, CA: Shannon Messenger at Barnes and Noble at 4 pm

February 28th:

Highlands Ranch, CO: Jessica Brody at Tattered Cover at 7 pm

* * * * *

January Book Wrap-Up

February 1, 2014January 31, 2014Leave a comment

Books Pledged to Read in 2014: 150 Books

Am I On Track: Nope. I’m 3 books behind. I’m in SUCH a slump this year, story so far.

Books Read So Far: 9

Total Books For January:

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Review for this book will come on February 20th, buy more about when I am part of the blog tour!

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

The Selection by Keira Cass

The Elite by Kiera Cass

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (Re-Read)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (Re-Read)

Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

Being Friends with Boys by Terra Elan McVoy

* * * * * *

I super hope February is MUCH better than January. I was in a major book slump, and I hope that I’m now out of it.

How was your January? What did you like? What books didn’t you like? What are you planning to read for February? Share in the comments!