[Movie Review] The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)

Posted on August 23, 2013 by thegrandshuckett in Movie Reviews // 0 Comments

Plot Summary: When her mother disappears, Clary Fray learns that she descends from a line of warriors who protect our world from demons. She joins forces with others like her and heads into a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld.

Director: Harald Zwart

Writer: Jessica Postigo (screenplay), Cassandra Clare (based on the novel by)

Runtime: 130 min

Main Cast:

Lily Collins as Clary Fray
Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland
Robert Sheehan as Simon Lewis
Kevin Zegers as Alec Lightwood
Lena Headey as Jocelyn Fray
Aidan Turner as Luke Garroway

Review: by Anthony and Lee

Based on the best-selling novels by Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was heralded to be the start of the next big teen fantasy movie franchise, picking up where the Twilight Saga left off. One of us (Anthony) had not read the novels whereas the other (Lee) had. We were both excited to see this movie for the action, special effects, and how well it would translate from novel to the big screen.

What We Liked:

Lena Headey did a solid job of acting in her role. Sadly, however, she did not have much screentime.

The special effects were decent. Nothing negative about them stands out.

It was funny at times. Some of the jokes fell flat, but others stuck, mostly those from Robert Sheehan (Simon).

What We Didn’t Like:

All of the acting, apart from Lena Headey, was terrible. Lily Collins was fainting unconvincingly left and right, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers did a particularly poor/creepy interpretation of Valentine.

Nothing was explained, leaving the audience members who hadn’t read the books jumping to conclusions throughout the entire film, taking the little bit of information actually provided and trying to make some sense of it. The Runes, specifically, were not explained at all.

The pacing of the film was just awful. It went racing from scene to scene in order to further the action, stopping only briefly to do a little character development. Many of the key scenes where the relationships between the characters were supposed to be developed ended up being glossed and rushed in order to get to more action. Thus, not much character development was done.

The movie ruins the series. The relationship between Clary and Jace is a key aspect that drives the books, and the uncertainty of everything is what keeps readers interested. The movie blatantly announced something that is not even revealed until 3 or 4 books into the series, and it did so so ineptly that audience members were left confused.