Friday, September 13, 2013

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

Movie: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones"
Director: Harald Zwart
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
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A young girl named Clary (Lily Collins) has a pretty normal existence, except that she has begun drawing a weird symbol without knowing it. At a nightclub, Clary and her best friend Simon (Robert Sheehan) see two very different goings on: Simon just sees people having a good time, and Clary sees a young, attractive man killing another club goer. After confronting the young man, named Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), he tells her that she is a Shadowhunter like him. As the legend has it, a Shadowhunter is a line of humans descended from angels that kill demons on Earth, which remain seen by everyday, ordinary Mundanes (non-Shadowhunters). It turns out her the mother was also a Shadowhunter, and not only hid it from her, but also took her to have her memory blocked by a monk every year on her birthday. Clary's mother gets abducted by the former Shadowhunter known as Valentine (Johnathan Rhys Myers), who is looking for the Mortal Cup, one of the Mortal Instruments that will turn Mundanes into Shadowhunters if they drink Shadowhunter blood from the cup. Clary must join forces with Jace and his team in order to find the Cup and save her mother.

As people who have not read the book and/or the series, this movie was alright. It had enough action and dark themes to it to keep us interested. Before we ever saw this film, we had heard a lot of people (including the girl at the concession counter the same day we watched this movie) compare it and the books to the "Twilight" franchise. If we had to choose, we'd pick this any day. We don't think that's a fair comparison: the only things that are similar are that they are both fantasy/sci-fi tween romance books/movies. Clary, the protagonist, is not as much of a whiny, sniveling, codependent weakling as Bella Swan is. Even though there are vampires in this film, THEY DO NOT SPARKLE IN THE SUNLIGHT, THEY BURN UP LIKE THEY ARE FREAKIN' SUPPOSED TO!!!! DO YOUR JOB, VAMPIRES!!!

*cough*

Anyways, it's a decent fantasy film, not the best, but not the worst. It has an interesting enough concept to keep us entertained. The acting is nothing to write home about, and every time I see Jamie Campbell Bower on screen in any film, I want to immediately say, "I feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel you Johaaaaaaanaaaaaa" because of "Sweeney Todd." If you like fantasy and/or teen romances, you'll probably enjoy this. I know a lot of the fans of the book were upset with this movie, but as people who have yet to read it, we cannot compare.

Lily Collins needs to close her mouth, though.

My Rating: 6/10
BigJ's Rating: 6.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 12%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?

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