Release Date: August 21, 2013
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) Book Review
Celebrating the release:
Book to Movie Review: As you can tell, I was super excited for this movie. No, it’s not the best thing ever in the whole world and no, I’m not a die hard super insane fan. But I am a fan and I loved having fun and getting excited about the movie. I loved the first 3 books in the series (as that’s all I’ve read so far) and I was thrilled it was becoming a movie. I’ve tried to follow along with the movie news, from casting to the first trailers. My expectations were probably somewhere between low and high. The trailers looked great and the acting looked superb, but I still had my reservations.
I’m happy to say that the movie was good. I enjoyed myself and even after all the effort of sporting all of The Mortal Instruments gear and getting all excited, I didn’t feel disappointed at all.
The acting was just as good as the trailers had me believe. The actor who played Jace did a wonderful job, even though I think he’s absolutely ugly. I would have enjoyed the chemistry between Clary and Jace more had he been more appealing to the eye, but I thought he did an amazing job at capturing Jace’s character in the books. This was the area I was the most worried about because of how I feel about the looks of the actor (compared to the image of the character I had when reading the books), but I found myself really enjoying the story and his character nonetheless. Simon was spectacular. Though I’ve always been “Team Jace” from the beginning, I really loved Simon in the books and I’m so glad the actor captured his character so perfectly. The entire theater laughed often because of Simon’s witty lines and the banter between him and Jace. The dynamic between the two of them that I loved so much in the books was definitely apparent on screen. All of the characters were great. From Clary to Valentine, I felt like all of the actors were superb. And Oh. My. Gosh. Magnus Bane was amazing. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about his American accent, but I thought he was absolutely flawless. I wished there was more of him, but I’m hoping the next movies will feature him more often.
The scenery and action was great. The Mortal Instruments is a book series that is rich in visual imagery and I enjoyed seeing my favorite scenes come to life. I didn’t think much was done in a cheesy way. The action scenes, the supernatural features, the runes, the institute, the portal, and the Silent Brothers were all incredible on screen. The voice over technique used with the Silent Brothers scenes was probably my least favorite thing about the movie and the only thing I can think of that didn’t really work as well as I’d hoped. The spooky trip through the City of Bones made it all kind of worth it, though.
As with most adaptations, there were variations, changes, shortened areas, a much faster, somewhat rushed pace, and other discrepancies. As with most adaptations, the books is definitely better. However, I enjoyed the movie enough to vow to see the rest of the movies made and leave the theater feeling happy. Which doesn’t really happen very often with series that I love or get excited about. I think the movie did the right thing. It kept most of us readers fairly happy, while also being enjoyable and action packed to entertain those who haven’t read the book. I love that it made me laugh out loud many times and was such an enjoyable movie overall.
I’d definitely recommend seeing the movie and I will see the rest of the series on screen.