Starring: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert
Sheehan
Seemingly for no reason at all, Clary Fray (Collins)
begins seeing the same enigmatic symbol everywhere she goes and even draws it
compulsively. The mystery only grows more bizarre when she witnesses a killing
in the middle of a night-club, but no-one else notices. Clary soon discovers
that she is a "shadowhunter" and teams up with a group of
shadowhunters in order to find her abducted mother (Lena Headey).
You would have to be living under a rock not to notice
the torrent of teen fantasy novel adaptations that have been put up on the
silver screen in the last several years and whilst a few have been rather good
(last year's The Hunger Games being a rare stellar example) most have been
generic and rather poorly written, following the same tropes and ideas to
appeal to the fanbase of mostly adolescent girls. The Mortal Instruments: City
Of Bones does not represent this fantasy subgenre at its best.
Originality is not City Of Bones' strong point,
containing elements that will be familiar to anyone who's ever even heard of
Harry Potter, Twilight or Star Wars to name three franchises that are instantly
called to mind with the story elements in this film and in some cases, it's not
always the best plot elements that you're reminded of, such as the love
interest, Jace, who much like Twilight's
Edward reminds you that what a seemingly large number of women find very
attractive, comes across to other people as rather creepy. To the film's
credit, the romance angle is given some rather rich development and even given
a gay angle, but this is pretty much dismissed almost instantly.
The acting levels in the film vary, but Lily Collins at
least proves a suitable lead and supporting cast spans various different
folklore creatures, making formvariety, but again, this isn't fully explored.
The film also has a handle on some strong imagery and the ability to even cause
a few jump scares once in a while, showing that the people behind the film have
skill and craft, but it's largely the meager source material that's at fault.
Based on a book that is the first of six parts, it's altogether possible that
this will not be the last installment; hopefully the others will improve.
Next time, Jason Sudekis plays a drug dealer posing as a
family man hoping to get a large stash of marijuana over the Mexican-US border
in comedy, We're The Millers.
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