PCP in Theaters - Vampire Academy

As I said back on my "I'm going on hiatus again" post, I knew I'd be seeing a couple movies in theaters before the blog returns full-time in the summer. Well, I saw Vampire Academy in theaters, all the way back on Valentine's Day, but I've been so busy that I wasn't able to write my review in detail until recently. At this point, you probably can't find this film in theaters anyway except maybe at the dollar theaters, because it didn't do too well at the box office anyway. But, it'll be on DVD soon, so if you really want to watch this movie, you'll be able to do so from the comfort of your own couch.

Vampire Academy - 2014, rated PG-13. My rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Marketing pro tip: don't mention the phrase "they suck" in the context of your film's advertising, as it makes it way too easy to mock the film itself if it isn't that good of a film.

I hadn't read the teen book series that the film was based on, and based on this film I don't have any intent to go and do so either. Like many films lately, VA was an attempt to find the next Twilight or Hunger Games franchise, but unfortunately for every hit at the box office, there's a flop or two as well, like this or Beautiful Creatures or the Mortal Instruments. All I knew about this film going in was that it was from the writer of the teen classic Heathers and the director of Mean Girls, so I figured that a film set in a high school couldn't be that terrible with that pedigree.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. The film wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. Working in its favor was the fact that it created a new variety of vampire mythology, compared to traditional vampire films (and hey, no sparkling either, a joke pointed out by the film itself in one of its funnier moments). Zoey Deutch stars as Rose, a half-human, half vampire known as a Dhampir. Dhampirs are the bodyguards of the good vampires, the Moroi, who have witchcraft like super powers but are not great at fighting. Rose specifically protects her best friend, Lissa, a princess of the Moroi nobility, from those that want to harm her, including the "bad" vampires, the Strigoi. Also working in the film's favor, in addition to the new mythology, are some of the scenes set at the school, especially in the cafeteria. Those parts of the film were some of the better scenes, which is likely due to the writing from Daniel Waters.

Too bad they couldn't stay at the school cafeteria all of the time since those, scenes were some of the best, but the film couldn't decide if it wanted to be a teen high school movie or an action/horror movie, so it felt uneven and schizophrenic. The CGI was also pretty weak looking, but the film did have a microscopic budget so that makes sense. Also, because of the unique mythology of the vampire hierarchy in this series, the film had to rely on way too much voice-over from Rose to explain what is going on to the audience, which hurts the film significantly. And, the film telegraphs it's bad guy in an extremely obvious way, so you can see the "twist" coming a mile away.

Overall, the movie ended on a nice sequel hook with a nasty looking army of Strigoi not far from the school, but based on how this bombed at the box office, we'll never get to see that attack happen on screen. If you want to find out what happens, I guess you'll have to read the books, but I don't plan to do that myself. If you do read them, let me know if they're worth the time.

Alright, that's all for today, thanks for stopping by!

Grad school hiatus again

Grad school is back on for me, so the blog is back into low-posting mode until May. I have a few movies I've caught on DVD lately I want to write about, but I'll probably just post those reviews in the summer, so things are probably going to be pretty quiet for awhile, sorry. I do plan on seeing a movie in theaters on Valentines' Day with my wife (she wants to see Vampire Academy so it'll be that), so I'll get that review up in February, and I also want to see Veronica Mars when that comes out in March, so look for that review then also. Otherwise though, yeah, it's gonna be pretty quiet around here. Thanks for dropping by!

PCP in Theaters - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I said back in my review of the first Hunger Games film that I hadn't yet read the books before seeing the film, a rarity for me. Since the first movie did so well that sequels were inevitable, I went out and read all of the books before seeing Catching Fire, the 2nd film (and book) in the series.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 2013, rated PG-13. My rating: 8.5 out of 10.

The second film in the series picks up a few months after the events of the first. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence, who seriously never takes a day off because she's in like every movie these days) & Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), the winners of the previous year's Hunger Games, find that their defiance of the Capitol in the previous year's games has resulted in rebellions and riots forming and spreading throughout the twelve subjugated districts. When their victory tour, forced upon them for having won, fails to suppress but instead foments additional riots, the President of the Capitol is extremely displeased. He changes the rules for the next year's Hunger Games, forcing the duo back into the gladiatorial arena against their will, in a Hunger Games comprised solely of previous winners. In other words, all 24 people competing in the games have won the grisly fight to the death, so there are no newbies that have no clue what they are doing when the fighting begins.

The first two-thirds of the film focuses on the emerging rebellion, the Capitol's brutality contrasted with its wasteful decadence and shallowness, and Katniss' growing discomfort with herself becoming the symbol of a rebellion. The final third brings us back into the arena, but it shows far less of the combat than the previous film, for reasons that I am not going to spoil here. The film ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, which makes sense as it is the middle book of a trilogy (but in this case the films are going to be a foursome, as the final book Mockingjay is being split into two parts). But overall, if you liked the first film in the series, you'll enjoy this one more. Having gotten the character introductions primarily out of the way in the first film, the second film flows a lot better and doesn't drag as much as the first film did in places. I'm looking forward to parts 3 and 4, when they come out in November of 2014 and 2015.