Based on the series of young adult novels by Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones comes to the big screen with it's audience of fans in place, ready to lap up every minute, while it tries to entice those who just view it as another Twilight. It's not wrong to say that, it does share a lot of DNA with Stephanie Meyer's neutered vampire saga, right down to the drawn out romance between the heroine and brooding hunk. But The Mortal Instruments differs from Twilight by ditching the permanent dour tone of those movies, and injecting something a bit more light and fun into the proceedings. It leads to something a lot more enjoyable and entertaining than the seemingly never ending trials of Edward and Bella, but also not entirely perfect.
The story kicks of with Clary (Lilly Collins) discovering the world of Shadowhunters, a group of demon hunters, which exists just below the surface of ours. When her mother (Lena Heady) is kidnapped, Shadowhunter Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) takes her deeper into his world, discovering she holds the key to keeping both their worlds safe from the evil Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).
Directed by The Karate Kid's Harald Zwart, the world of The Mortal Instruments is beautifully brought to life, with the design work and special effects (a truly horrifying demon dog being the highlight) impressing at every corner. The movie drags you into this world from the opening frame, completely immersing you, and chugs along at a nice pace, displaying a good sense of humour and fun, keeping things light, and taking it's time with the set up but never making it feel dragged out. There is quite a lot of action here, with some set pieces being delightfully brutal, livening up the movie when the story gets too much for it. As with any book adaption, the movie tries to condense its mythology into something more digestible. It works for the most part, but you are left with the sense that you are missing out on more, especially a revelation about Robert Sheehan's Simon (probably the most enjoyable character of the bunch), which is swept under the rug as soon as it is introduced, no doubt kept for the planned sequel. With the set up out of the way, the story slows down to make way for the romance between Jace and Clary, which comes off as extremely heavy handed, even going so far as having the cliched kiss in the rain, but having it indoors, which makes it even more ridiculous. The attempts to switch it up by introducing a love rectangle are admirable, but they ultimately miss the mark. The story never really recovers after this, lacking the energy of the first act, and is hurt even further with a mishandled reveal in the third act, which is completely stripped of any shock value, and leaves the finale feeling limp.
While there has been good group of actors assembled here, the young guns of Collins, Campbell, and Sheehan reinforced by the old hands Heady, Meyers, Aidan Turner, and Jared Harris, Zwart's direction of them feels very flat, leading to a lot of groan inducing dialogue and scenes that just don't work. Collins handles herself well as the heroine, selling her entrance into the supernatural world completely, letting us swallow the more eye rolling aspects of the story a bit easier. Bower pulls off the sarcastic dick role very well, though struggles when the story asks him to emote. Meyers doesn't really come off as a menacing villain, mainly down to us not spending much time with him, and not enough build up of the character.
An entertaining fantasy adventure, hampered by some serious missteps in direction and story, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones does a good job of dismissing peoples assumptions that it was just another Twilight, and learning from its mistakes has the potential of spawning a successful franchise.
The story kicks of with Clary (Lilly Collins) discovering the world of Shadowhunters, a group of demon hunters, which exists just below the surface of ours. When her mother (Lena Heady) is kidnapped, Shadowhunter Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) takes her deeper into his world, discovering she holds the key to keeping both their worlds safe from the evil Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).
Directed by The Karate Kid's Harald Zwart, the world of The Mortal Instruments is beautifully brought to life, with the design work and special effects (a truly horrifying demon dog being the highlight) impressing at every corner. The movie drags you into this world from the opening frame, completely immersing you, and chugs along at a nice pace, displaying a good sense of humour and fun, keeping things light, and taking it's time with the set up but never making it feel dragged out. There is quite a lot of action here, with some set pieces being delightfully brutal, livening up the movie when the story gets too much for it. As with any book adaption, the movie tries to condense its mythology into something more digestible. It works for the most part, but you are left with the sense that you are missing out on more, especially a revelation about Robert Sheehan's Simon (probably the most enjoyable character of the bunch), which is swept under the rug as soon as it is introduced, no doubt kept for the planned sequel. With the set up out of the way, the story slows down to make way for the romance between Jace and Clary, which comes off as extremely heavy handed, even going so far as having the cliched kiss in the rain, but having it indoors, which makes it even more ridiculous. The attempts to switch it up by introducing a love rectangle are admirable, but they ultimately miss the mark. The story never really recovers after this, lacking the energy of the first act, and is hurt even further with a mishandled reveal in the third act, which is completely stripped of any shock value, and leaves the finale feeling limp.
While there has been good group of actors assembled here, the young guns of Collins, Campbell, and Sheehan reinforced by the old hands Heady, Meyers, Aidan Turner, and Jared Harris, Zwart's direction of them feels very flat, leading to a lot of groan inducing dialogue and scenes that just don't work. Collins handles herself well as the heroine, selling her entrance into the supernatural world completely, letting us swallow the more eye rolling aspects of the story a bit easier. Bower pulls off the sarcastic dick role very well, though struggles when the story asks him to emote. Meyers doesn't really come off as a menacing villain, mainly down to us not spending much time with him, and not enough build up of the character.
An entertaining fantasy adventure, hampered by some serious missteps in direction and story, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones does a good job of dismissing peoples assumptions that it was just another Twilight, and learning from its mistakes has the potential of spawning a successful franchise.
