Knock-off; noun: a copy or imitation of something popular. Knock off; transitive verb: to do hurriedly or routinely. Meeting both definitions is "Vampire Academy," a tween-targeted novel franchise penned by Richelle Mead, which has been adapted to the big screen as a lazy, deja-vu-inducing mess. Director Mark Waters takes the high school clique bitchiness of his previous film "Mean Girls" and drops it into a "Harry Potter"-style boarding school of magic, then tosses in the good-vampire-versus-bad-vampire lore and histrionically romantic teens from the "Twilight" series.
Zoey Deutch plays Rose Hathaway, a half-human, half-vampire breed known as a Dhampir, in a copycat performance that is half the look of Kate Beckinsale from "Underworld" and half the mouth of Ellen Page from "Juno" — her unrelenting snarkiness will leave you pleading for a stake through the heart.
"Vampire Academy" drops you into the story artlessly, with a big constipated lump of exposition about the ancient Dhampir race, who are badass bodyguards sworn to protect the Moroi (good vampire mages who don't attack humans) from the Strigoi (old-school and slavering blood-sucking vampires). For Rose, that means protecting her BFF Lissa Dragomir (Lucy Fry), who is also a princess and the last surviving heir to the throne.