Has the new Twilight arrived? Or was this just another passing attempt gone wrong? As movie execs clamor to get a hold of the next “big thing” tween girls can latch onto, we’ve had most recently Beautiful Creatures and The Host, both failed in their attempts to become the next big thing. Now all attention turns to the adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s best selling books series The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
Normal New York teenager Clary Fray discovers she is a descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret group of half-angel warriors locked in a battle with the world of demons. After her mother’s disappearance, Clary must join forces with the Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a world filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and other deadly creatures.
I’m sure a story with many parts, great characters, and a long length is a wonderful read, but here in film form, it falls flat with way too many questions and not enough answers. One of the main issues with the film is that the world is not defined. Clary is pushed into a world filled with monsters and magic, and she never once questioned it. There’s only one point where she asks a question, and it’s not the one you’d ask if your world just opened up into something way bigger and scarier than you thought. As the audience, you figure out what’s going on because you’ve seen other fantasy films that explain their world better. So things make sense, but only because this is inspired by so many better things.
The movie cast goes from fantastic to “how are they working in Hollywood?” The positives first: Jared Harris as the wise old Shadowhunter, CCH Punder, a psychic, Aidan Turner, the lead werewolf and protector of Clary, and Lena Headley as Clary’s mother all turn in performances that, for this movie, are good. Kevin Zegers and Jemima West are two Shadowhunters who by far are the most interesting characters in the movie, but have little to do or screen time to make an impact. They try with Zegers character, Alec Lightwood, by attempting to make a statement about his homosexuality, but it comes across like an insulting after-school special, leaving you with nothing.
Then there’s the negatives: everyone else. Some of these actors can act, and have been in award winning movies, but here it’s like they took all their talent and just decided to leave it at home for the day. Especially the two leads: Lilly Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, who are just awful. From the start they are bad and they never get better. These characters have absolutely no chemistry, and it becomes painful to watch them.
I’d like to think over time these two could become better with age. I’m sure Bower can, he’s been good in a few movies. But Collins needs to stop. She is never confidant, and always looks confused on screen. As is with the movie’s villain, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who only comes into the movie in the third act, so not really enough time to be anything other than a plot point. He carries a look on his face of “why am I in this?” The real villain in the movie is how long it is. It’s just over two hours long, which isn’t horrible, but man do you feel those two hours.
The effects are better than most films, but not good enough to be remembered for. Everything happens so fast that your eyes never get a good look at the effect, which in hindsight is probably a good thing. Nothing feels fleshed out, like they just got to set and thought of things they may do with CGI later. There is a hellhound used at one point (the best effect in the flick), but it’s over shadowed by how gross it becomes. Grossness is not a substitute for lack of creativity.
The biggest issue with the movie is the ending, or lack thereof. I’m not going to spoil anything for people who do want to see the flick, that would be unfair. But keep in mind four big things happen in the movie that are never, and I mean never, talked about again. And they are things that you will want to know about. I assume the filmmakers didn’t wrap up those story lines with the hope that there will be a sequel.
Well, after seeing this, I’d be surprised if there was one. On one hand, props to the filmmakers for having the forethought to make you want to come back for more. But on the other hand, you never assume anything in the movie business, and you should always have an ending. Not saying you can’t have something left open, but what they do here is just bad storytelling.
At the end of the day, there are things you can find in this movie to like, but the bad storytelling may over shadow them. For someone like myself who tends to like books, movies, and games that deal with this type of story, this was just a cheap version of things you like being spoon-fed to you in hopes that it will capture that tween Twilight audience. It might, but very doubtful. All I can say is, watching this with all its laziness in story and filmmaking reminds me of my own mortality and how I’d like to spend it better.