This is under Z for the ABC film challenge because of the director Harald Zwart.
Director: Harald Zwart
Writer: Jessica Postigo (Screenplay) Cassandra Clare (Novel)
Starring: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Kevin Zegers, Jemima West, Robert Sheehan, Robert Maillet, Kevin Durand, Lena Headey
Plot: When her mother disappears, Clary Fray learns that she descends from a line of warriors who protect our world from demons. She joins forces with others like her and heads into a dangerous alternate New York called the Shadow World.
Tagline – Worlds will collide August 21
Runtime: 2 Hours 10 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Young Adult Blah
Story: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones starts when normal teenagers Clary (Collins) starts seeing and drawing a mysterious symbol which her mother Jocelyn (Headey) knows more about, this draws attention towards her which sees her mother disappear and Jace (Bower) teaching her about her mother’s past as a warrior fighting demons.
Clary enters a mysterious world beneath New York City, where Jace shows her just how big the battle between the two sides is, with Valentine (Meyers) searching for Clary.
Thoughts on The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Characters – Clary is the normal teenager girl that has started seeing a strange symbol in her everyday life, this takes her down a new path to search for her mother, only to learn about her own true identity which will see her learning that she is a warrior that fights demons. Clary is the typical young adult figure that we always see, she isn’t given anything new to make her look special in anyway. Jace is the young man that is a shadow hunter that looks to protect Clary from the other evil forces that what her information. He leads the strongest team, he also becomes a love interest for Clary. Alec and Isabelle are the two other members of the team, they are suspicious of Clary and what it might mean to the rest of the shadow hunters futures. We do have plenty of senior figure that help guide the younger characters along their way, some help, some have their own motives.
Performances – Lily Collins does the best she can in this role, it is hard to figure out the mindset of the character which part of the problem in the performance. Jamie Campbell Bower struggles to, because it is trying to be mysterious only to look uninterested in what is happening, this is a problem most of the cast suffer from with only Jemima West being watchable because she does get some funny lines.
Story – The story here follows a teenage girl that learns she has a connection to a battle between good and evil going on in our own world, where she is one of the most important parts of bringing an end to it all. This is one of those young adult stories that made such an impact, we somebody in this case Clary learn about a world she wasn’t aware of, where he presence in will change it for every side of the battle. We do get thrown into a lot of information here because we get to see just how big this world is meant to be and how many different types of creatures, demons and monsters are living with in it. This is also one of those frustrating opening chapters of a set of stories which is meant to be growing to become much large in the future, the film idea failed, but the story does get to go to the small screen for answers.
Action/Fantasy/Horror/Romance – The action comes from the battles between the different demons in the world that are preparing to fight against each other, the fantasy world we enter should be a lot more entertaining because of the creatures involved. We get the cheap horror moments involved which never feel remotely scary in anyway. The romance is angle does get awkward in places and tries to build a love triangle too.
Settings – The film is set in New York, which is fine, the idea that there is a world out there that we don’t know about should be a lot more entertaining and visual special too.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are the flashing lights involved in the fights, most work well, with the demons looking the best.
Scene of the Movie – Demons pause.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not following instructions.
Final Thoughts – This is another one of the young adult movies that just doesn’t do anything special and falls into the, ‘we have seen this before’ category.
Overall: Disappointing Young Adult Film.
Rating