Review: The Mortal Instruments:City of Bones

Review: The Mortal Instruments:City of Bones

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Official 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' Poster.

       Another attempt to create a new 'Twilight' or 'Hunger Games' saga, 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' does a better job than previous attempts, but still a mediocre one with respect to its underlying potential.

"Lily Collins".

"Jaime Campbell Bower".

       In New York City, teenager 'Clary Fray'(Lilly Collins) starts to see a very strange symbols, that worries her mother 'Jocelyn Fray'(Lena Headey) and her mother's friend 'Luke Garroway'(Aidan Turner). One night while attending a night club with her best friend 'Simon Lewis'(Robert Sheehan), 'Clary' witnesses a murder committed by a mysterious man 'Jace Wayland'(Jaime Campbell Bower), who can be seen by 'Clary'. When returning home, she realizes that her mother 'Jocelyn' is kidnapped. From there, her life as she knows it is going to completely change, after she realizes that she has abilities that she didn't knew she had and that she has belongs to a more complex world that no one knew exists. Other characters include the remaining 'Shadowhunters': 'Alec Lightwood'(Kevin Zegers) and his sister 'Isabelle Lightwood'(Jemima West). We also have the 'Shadowhunter''s leader 'Hodge Starkweather'(Jarred Harris), the evil ex-'Shadowhunter' 'Valentine Morgenstern'(Jonathan Rhys Meyers), 'Valentine''s followers 'Emil Pangborn'(Kevin Durand) and 'Samuel Blackwell'(Robert Maillet), the witch 'Madame Dorothea'(C.C.H Pounder), member of the 'Silent Brother' 'Brother Jeremiah'(Stephen R. Hart), and powerful warlock 'Magnus Bane'(Godfrey Gao).

"Jonathan Rhys Meyers".

"Lena Headey".

       Many have come to realize that after the huge success of both the 'Twilight' Saga and 'The Hunger Games', many studios are searching for the new hit franchise. Over 2013, there have been many attempts of that kind such as 'Beautiful Creatures' and 'The Host (2013)', who both flopped at the box office. When I first heard of 'Mortal Instruments’, about the impact and popularity the book series had on many people, I thought that the material inside will be enough to make the movie good and start a new franchise. However, I think that the wrong approach was taken in transforming the book series into a popular movie franchise. The themes that underlie the books, as well as the new material inside, would have been great to see on the big screen, if it were translated and applied in a solid manner. Unfortunately, the blame for this failure is on the writers as well as the marketing department, where they should have emphasized on the new material present, rather than on the silly teenage nonsense.

"Kevin Zegers" and "Jamima West".

"Aidan Turner", "Kvin Durand",
and "Robert Maillet".

       Norwegian director "Harald Zwart", who is known for directing the successful remake of 'The Karate Kid' in 2010, did an appropriate job. He did bring us a very beautiful picture; however, the jamming of ideas in the manner that was done was very close to a disaster. The concentration was so much on the known material such as the love triangles, vampires, werewolves and witchcrafts, when it should have been on the new world and allow these material to be developed throughout the movie and not in certain parts of the movie. The same problem goes to the writers "Jessica Postigo Paquette", who was praised for being authentic to the original material written in "Cassandra Claire"'s books, but she should have tried to give the movie its own stamp that differs from what is found in the books. The Special Effects and imagery of the movie were very impressive and improved the movie to a certain extent. Same could be said to the score, which was composed by "Atli Örvarsson"('Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters'), which gave the movie a distinct musical personality among the same genre movies.

"Lily Collins" and "Robert Sheehan".

"Jaime Campbell Bower" and
"Lilly Collins".

       It must be noted one more time that the image quality of this movie was really attractive and enhanced the viewing of the themes of this story. The time and pace of the movie was long and inconsistent. The beginning of the movie for me was very good, since the introduction of 'Clary' was essential for us in order to be able to recognize its development throughout the movie. However, after the introduction of the 'Shadowhunters' and the methodology, things started to take a downward spiral. The things that annoyed me that there were certain scenes and instances that were really great, but they were met by below level scenes that were also incoherently linked with one another. My picks for best scenes were the vampire fighting scene, the 'Clary'-'Jace' garden scene, and the freezing of the demons by 'Clary'. The final showdown to me should have had more emphasize on the severity of the predicament and less family drama and very weird revelations. So improvements on many scenes could have been made.

"Lilly Collins" and "Godfrey Gao".

"Lilly Collins" and "Aiden Turner".

       The cast combined emerging talents as well as knowledgeable actors and actresses that allowed the creation of balance between the cast. "Lily Collins" is one of my personal favorites, and headlining this franchise proved that she has the talent. She may have fallen short on few scenes, but she did an amazing job. "Jamie Campbell Bower" had this movie as his breaking out opportunity in which he was able to deliver. The awkward reveal between the two characters they played made it desired impact, since the chemistry between "Lily" and "Jaime" was undeniable, yet not an all-time best. "Jonathan Rhys Meyers" was very convincing in playing an evil character, "Lena Headey" proved her ability for versatility yet had fewer scenes than expected, and "Aidan Turner" was strong considering the limited baggage that his character had. "Kevin Zegers"'s character was different which was pleasing yet had also limited and poor development. Same could be said about the growth of the characters of "Robert Sheehan", "Jemima West", "Godfrey Gao", and "Jarred Harris". The world of "Stephen R. Hart" and "C.C.H Punder"'s characters could have had a bigger role in the story. And the use of "Kevin Durand" and "Robert Maillet" was purely for comedic purposes, which didn't exactly work.

      A movie franchise that had so much methodology and new ideas failed due to poor execution, which even with some good scenes and adequate acting couldn't help it. Constantine Film is continuing with the franchise even with the box office disappointing result. Hopefully, the mistakes done here will be managed and fixed.

"The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones".

-'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' Info:
-Starring: Lily Collins, Jaime Campbell Bower, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Lena Headey, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Aiden Turner, Jemima West, Jarrid Harris, C.C.H Punder, Kevin Durand and Robert Maillet.
-Based on: 'City of Bones' by Cassandra Clare.
-Studio(s): Constantine Film and Screen Gems.
-Directed by: Harald Zwart.
-Screenplay by: Jessica Postigo Paquette.
-Music by: Atli Örvarsson.
-Running Time: 130 minutes.
-Budget: $ 60,000,000.
-Box Office: -Domestic(US): $ 31,165,421.
                      -Foreign: $ 59,400,000.
-Ratings: -IMdb: 6.0/10.
                -Rotten Tomatoes: 12%.
                -Metacritic: 33%.
 
                -PERSONAL RATING: 6.7/10.

-'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bone' Trailer: