Movie Review: The Mortal Instruments | City of Bones

I have been waiting for this movie to premiere ever since I picked up the boxed set of the first three books in the series (see previous blog post about my fangirldom).  For some unknown reason I kept thinking that it premiered Friday, since most movies open on Fridays, I suppose.  Imagine my delight when I went to go check local show times and realized that it in fact premieres today!

Luckily enough for me, I had the day off so I was able to go to the first showing at my theater at 11:00 a.m.  I didn't want to wait until the afternoon when teenage girls who slept in decided to swarm the theater; after all, school isn't back in session yet.  There is honestly nothing I love better than going to see a movie by myself, and I treated myself to a MEDIUM popcorn ("for only fifty cents more").  Butter?  Yes, please.

So on to the movie portion.  I'll start with the previews, because there was one that caught my eye; and that was a preview for "Pompeii" with the ever delicious Kit Harrington ("You know nothing, Jon Snow!").  It doesn't look like there's a trailer for this film available as yet online, but you can see Mr. Harrington in all his glory as the male lead here (as well as read a bit more about the film).  The movie looks like it's about - well, Pompeii, and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed most of the city's population.  There are some pretty cool explosion scenes of the volcano in the trailer and Kit looks half-naked, warrior style, for most of the film so I will probably go see it.

Which brings us to....City of Bones!

** SPOILER ALERT: I will try to stay free of obvious spoilers but for those who haven't read the books or who aren't interested in how the movie differs from the book, please do not continue. **

I felt a little gypped when it came to this film because I had devoured so many of the trailers and clips before heading into the actual film.  So I felt like I had already seen most of it.  But I tried not to let it detract from my enjoyment too much.  Overall the film was definitely entertaining - if you've read the books, you already know that there is lots of action and the storyline is obviously heavy-handed with the fantasy and paranormal element.  I really thought that Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace would make the film for me, but surprisingly he didn't; don't get me wrong, he's incredibly hot and has that whole leather-clad ass-kicker thing going on, but they only gave poor JCB a few of Jace's cutting one-liners so I feel like Jace's personality as shown in the books wasn't really showcased.  The scene stealer for me was definitely - drumroll, please - JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS.  Oh man, you guys, nobody does crazy eyes like this guy.  Whoever cast him as Valentine was genius.  He's believably deranged and does calm psychotic like he actually is insane.  See Exhibit A:

Crazy.  Eyes.

I was mildly irritated by his hair.  Dreds, really?  And not just dreds - a mini ponytail of dreds, coming directly out the back of his head and cascading down his chest.  Not exactly how I envisioned Valentine stylin' and profilin', but hey, whatever.  Obviously he isn't the white-blonde described in the book either, but that didn't bother me so much.

The only other thing that really annoyed me about this film was the treatment of Magnus Bane.  Godfrey Gao did a wonderful job of portraying one of the most memorable and beloved characters from the series, but they USED A VOICE OVER for his voice.  And it was bad - really bad.  The intonation was off and sometimes even the words vs. mouth.  It was so obviously overdubbed that it was almost painful to watch; this film had too big a budget to be doing something like that.  It cheapened the entire movie for me, honestly, and seriously detracted from a stellar character.

One highlight was the treatment of the demons.  The CGI was pretty seamless and the demons weren't gratuitous.  They were meaningfully placed and artfully done and honestly, probably a little scary to younger children.  Well done with the demons.

Clary, played by Lilly Collins, was sort of your run of the mill heroine.  Likeable, beautiful enough that obviously the male lead falls for her and feisty.  I know Clary is supposed to be a redhead in the books and it honestly bothered me a bit that her hair was that weird dyed auburn in the film; not a color that anyone's hair would be naturally.  Almost kind of purpley?  But Collins did a pretty good job as Clary and wasn't completely helpless as a heroine, which was nice.  I can see this film propelling her to the kind of fame that "Twilight" did for Kristen Stewart and "Hunger Games" for Jennifer Lawrence.

Isabelle Lightwood was portrayed pretty accurately, as was Alec; Kevin Zegers faked a commendable British accent.  They played relatively small parts to me as it felt like the majority of the film was spent setting up the storyline.  And even at that I felt like a lot was left out.  The film had a two-hour run time and the word "stele" was never used.  Seriously.  If my boyfriend had been with me I'm sure he would have called it "that light up stick thingie."  I already knew the details from having read the series but I felt like if you weren't familiar with the plot you may have been a little bit lost.  I plan on seeing the film again with my boyfriend so I can get his take on it and will have a more accurate feel for the film's effect on the uninitiated.

There were lots of plot changes as well - Simon's treatment by the vampires, Renwick's, the portals, and pretty much the entire ending (or at least its setting).  But the feel of the book was captured and I suppose that's what matters.  What really got me is that much of the information included in the first book was left out but information revealed in the second book (regarding Clary's abilities) was put in.  WTF?  The way in which it was revealed was completely fabricated as well, which irritated me.  But I suppose when you go to see a film adaptation of a novel such things are to be expected.

All in all I would say that I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars, maybe?  The givens for films targeted towards teenagers were there - shirtless scenes of hot dudes, cheesy music cued at the exact moments something cheesy happens, and soaring string music when something "epic" is revealed to Clary.  I sort of resent that they try to tell you how to feel through the music but again, that's the genre.  Since I saw an 11:00 a.m. showing the theater was mostly empty and the jokes put in between Jace and Simon that were supposed to make fans of the book laugh sort of fell flat with the other, oh, two patrons in the theater.  So that was kind of awkward.  But it was an enjoyable way to spend my morning and I got a big bag of popcorn to boot.  Wednesday win!

Do you plan to see this film?  What parts are you most excited about?