Movie Review: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

I am so happy that I was able to see The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones on the release date!  It was surprisingly not crowded.  I hope the crowd picks up this weekend because I really want sequels!

OK, on to the review.  I think I would give this 4 stars out of 5.  Overall I really enjoyed the movie and would love to go back over the weekend and see it as a $5 movie at AMC (I’m cheap, I don’t want to pay full price to see it a second time!)  There were a few things I didn’t like which prevent me from giving it 5 stars.  So let’s go over everything I didn’t like:

1. Magnus!  OMG.  He’s one of my favorite characters spanning The Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments series.  I did NOT think they did him justice.  I think he looked the part.  But that’s as far as it went. As soon as he talked, I hated him.  He was an awful actor.  And he was not nearly gay or flamboyant enough.  They definitely failed in portraying Magnus for me.
2. Plot flow.  The plot flow was a little off.  It started out following the first book, but some things were super rushed and some things were definitely not explained well (i.e. the curse on Hodge).  And then they started adding things from book 2 and changing some things.  So the plot just didn’t flow nearly as well as the books do.  But having read all the books, I was never lost.  But someone who hasn’t read the books might get a little lost and confused at some parts.
3. Valentine.  Why was he so young?!  He doesn’t look like he could have a 15 year old kid!  It was ridiculous to me.  Sure he looked a little menacing, but it was kind of hard to take him seriously when he was so young. I wasn’t able to believe that he was Clary’s dad.  Another fail in my opinion.  But he wasn’t involved much in this movie, so it didn’t hurt the rating in my eyes as much.
4.  <spoiler> Hodge gave Valentine the idea to lie about Jace being his son.  What?  I mean, they had to do it.  Our culture does not view incest well.  So in order for other people to watch to watch the movie, they had do make it known in this movie that it’s not true. But what a strange way to go about it.  I think they probably could have found a better way to do that.  But honestly, I wouldn’t read the books until I knew the ending.  Then I felt okay about reading the books. </spoiler>
5. All the shadowhunters were British!  Why?  That kind of boggled my mind.  Not a huge strike because I got over it quickly, but It’s just a brain teaser to me. I have no idea why they were all British.

Ok, so now let’s talk about the good parts:

1. Clary, Simon, Jace.  I think they casted everyone pretty well.  Jaime Campbell Bower is a little feminine in facial features than I imagined Jace being, but overall I think he did him justice.  He was pretty witty and delivered most of the sarcastic comments well.  Lily Collins surprisingly was perfect as Clary.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about her until I watched the movie. But she did a pretty good job and was a pretty good actress.  I was pleasantly surprised.  And Simon.  I think he was perfect.
2. Action and fighting sequences.  I thought the fighting and action sequences were done really well.  They were visually stimulating and you could always tell what was going on.  And I really liked when they used their swords and steles, and Isabelle used her whip.  I think they nailed it.  They didn’t downplay the action and violence – it was perfect.
3. Lines from the book.  I didn’t realize until I really started reading the book again (because I couldn’t leave the story with that ending!) how many lines they actually pulled from the book.  I love it.  I like it when screen play writers and producers keep things in there for the diehard book lovers.  Sure, some of the lines could have been delivered a little better, but overall I think it was great.
4. Intensity.  I think they really built up the intensity of the movie as soon as Clary’s mom was attacked all the way to the end.  There was never a dull moment.  Everyone was on the edge of their seat.  There were even a couple times where my husband and I jumped because something freaked us out.
5. The demons were created beautifully.  They were just as disgusting and scary as described in the books!  And most of the bad shadowhunters were just as creepy as I imagined.
6. The setting.  They did a great job creating the setting of the shadowhunter world.  The institute looked almost as I imagined it.  And the rooms, were identical! I couldn’t believe how much the inside of the institute looked like in my head.  I guess Clare has a knack of great description.

It seems I’ve listed almost the same amount of things I liked as disliked.  But the things I liked far out-weighed the things I didn’t like.  I think they did a pretty good job with the movie – not on the same level as The Hunger Games, but I think they did a better job than Twilight.  Though I think the Twilight plot was done better because it actually stuck to the book for the most part. 

If you’re a Mortal Instruments fan, you absolutely need to go see this movie.  It will be a great edition to your shadowhunter love.  I can’t wait until it comes to Blu-Ray.  Make sure to try to see the movie on opening weekend so that we have the best chance of them creating a sequel!

PS: To celebrate the release of the movie, the kindle edition of “Myths and Motifs of The Mortal Instruments will be free from the publisher on August 23 and 24!  http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Motifs-Mortal-Instruments-ebook/dp/B00ED8FCA8