The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Film Review
by Rebekah Sheridan
As a huge fan of the best-selling
books by Cassandra Clare, I was very excited to see my favourite characters and
this amazing fantasy world brought to life on the big screen this summer. The
story line centres sixteen year old, Clary Fray (Lily Collins) who seemingly is
an ordinary teenage girl with a bestfriend, Simon (Robert Sheehan) and an
over-protective mother, Jocelyn (Lena Heady). Her life is drastically changed though when her mother is attacked and kidnapped and
she meets Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), a cocky and arrogant Shadowhunter and dives into this new world full of Vampires, Werewolves,
Warlocks and Demons to save her mother, finding out hidden secrets about
herself and family along the way.
A Shadowhunter is another name for Nephilim (half angel, half human "beings of immense power") who anonymously fight to protect humanity from downworlders and demons. They also burn many temporary runes into their skin which enhances certain abilities, such as strength, angelic power and even a rune to make them unseen to mundanes (humans).
With high expectations,
I waited patiently for the 21st of August to arrive and when it
finally did, I entered the cinema full of excitement and hope for this beloved
story, but two hours and ten minutes later, I left feeling rather let down and disappointed.
As a fan of the books, I enjoyed this movie, but as a critic, I had a lot of negative things to say. Obviously, I had expected changes
from the book to movie adaptation, but not so much that it spoiled the rest of
the books and left me eye rolling and sometimes cringing throughout the film.
The soundtrack was also really cheesy and most songs were out of place to what was going on. I did not
want a pop song playing in the background of an important scene, or dramatic
music placed where dramatic music was not needed, it just made it all the more
disappointing.
Not all was bad though,
the acting for one was brilliant, aside from Godfrey Gao who played the
flamboyant, bisexual Warlock, Magnus Bane – he just didn't capture his
personality and although he looked the part, he just seemed boring and dull. Lily Collins though, was a perfect
choice for heroine, Clary Fray and even though there was negative debate for
Bower to play Jace, I thought his performance was brilliant. Jemima West as
Isabelle Lightwood and Kevin Zegers as her brother, Alec were also great cast
choices. But, I thought Valentine’s (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) character was not
portrayed as charming and charismatic as he is in the book, instead he reminded
me of a ridiculous, brainless Tarzan, which again, was a disappointment for me
as his character depth was not shown in this movie.
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| (L-R) Alec, Jace and Isabelle with Clary in front |
On the other hand, I
thought the CGI use was very well done and not overly used to the point where
it seemed ridiculous – I also liked how the film did not depend on the special effects,
besides it’s use for the demons and effects of the glamour (camouflage the
shadowhunters use to hide their identity) and focused more on the story line. There
is also a lot of humour in this film and comes through with the sarcastic one-liners and
the conversations between Clary, Jace and Simon and makes the two hour
experience a lot more enjoyable.
Besides the little mistakes, the things that
bothered me and the fact that it didn’t exactly live up to my expectations, I
did actually enjoy this movie to an extent, but obviously, no movie is better
than the book it's based on! I look forward to the sequel, and hope that this second
movie is less cheesy and actually sticks to the basic story line this time.
Overall, I give this movie a 3/5 Angelic Power Runes
Trailer for the movie:
You have been able to take a step back from the film and apply a critical view of the work, ignoring your own personal views. This is essential to all good review. Your work is well written and provides an excellent insight in to the pros and cons of the film. Very good job!
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