Vampire Academy **½

Mark Waters directed this Comedy/Thriller Watch Preview Cast: Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky, Gabriel Byrne, Sarah Hyland, Joely Richardson, Cameron Monaghan, Sami Gayle, Claire Foy, Ashley Charles. Rated PG-13 for violence, bloody images, sexual content and language. Running time is one hour and forty-four minutes.

Two 17-year-old girls (Deutch, Fry) attend a hidden boarding school for Moroi (mortal, peaceful Vampires) and Dhampirs (half-vampire/half-human guardians). Based on author Richelle Mead's worldwide bestselling series, "Vampire Academy". 

While this is clearly aimed at the teenage girls who read the highly successful book series, there is enough fast paced, witty dialogue and action to make it appeal to an even wider audience. Aiming to fall between the Twilight series and Harry Potter, I found it better than the first but not nearly as good as the latter. Production values are good and the cast is fine, especially Deutch, but the plot jumps around unnecessarily and it's slightly longer than it should be. This film is basically a set-up to a hoped for new series, but whether it succeeds in that endeavor remains to be seen.

There are no additional scenes once the final credits begin. A large screen would be nice but not necessary. Theatres/Times.