The Mortal Instruments : City of Bones (2013) Review
Finally, another movie based on popular novel is arrived. The Mortal Instruments : City of Bones is an adoption from Cassandra Clare's first book in her best-selling novel. At first, I'm not interested on reading this book because of the novel thickness. My friends also convinced me that I should read this novel, but my head still didn't believe whether this novel is really worth it to read or not, hahaha.
But now, after reading it, I think this novel is quite good. So, let's see if this movie is on the same good level or not with the novel.
Genre : Fiction Fantasy, Action, Drama
Running Time : 130 minutes
a brief storyline
Clary Fray (Lily Collins) is an ordinary teenage girl who loves drawing and hangs out with her only nerdy bestfriend, Simon (Robert Sheehan). Until one day, she finds out that she is no more a human, but a Shadowhunter, a race of good assassins to fight demons. Then, the story continues to search Clary's kindapped-mother, Jocelyn and to find "Mortal Cup" with another Shadowhunters, Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell), Alec (Kevin Zegers), and Isabelle (Jemima West).
Clary Fray: Shadow Hunters?
Hodge Starkweather: Half Angel, Half human. Beings of immense power, strong enough to restore balance... and protect the world in a war against evil.
a fair review *contains spoiler
Fortunately, the whole cast are all actually pretty good. They portray the characters themselves so well. Lily Collins is SO PERFECT as Clary, she is really BEAUTIFUL. Jamie Campbell isn't just a cool blonde guy, but I think he is less badass as Jace like in the novel. Kevin Zegers as Alec is suitable enough, so is Jemima West as Isabelle. What makes me more interested is Godfrey Gao as Magnus Bane ! HELLA PERFECT CAST! He is handsome enough as Magnus Bane. I wish Magnus Bane have had more screen times. Okay, stop fangirling.
The first one hour for me is so in a rush (too-much-happen-in-one-scene), eventhough almost half of the important plot is well interpreted. I understand why, time is important. It's impossible for the director to put the whole book into 2-hours movie.
How about the plot? For readers who have read the novel, the plot is actually in a mess (just for the last half part in the movie). The changes in the last half part in the movie is understandable and I think It's okay. For non-readers, I think director illustrates successfully how the novel says in it. It clearly describes about vampires, werewolves, warlocks, witches, mundane ( a name for human like "muggle" ), and everything. The interaction between Simon and Clary about unrequited love is interesting. How Jace falls in love with Clary is clearly enough to understand. I just don't really see the interaction between Jace and Alec about their gay love, ahahaha. So, unfortunately this intriguing love between Clary, Jace, Simon and Alec isn't explored deeply enough.
Last, I love the script and the dialogue. I love the visual fantasy effect, especially in a Glass House which is full of beautiful flowers and leaves. All the demons are also scary enough. What I don't like is the soundtrack or the score, some are not matching enough with the scenes (sigh).
a brief closure
Recommended? It's really hard to decide whether you have to watch this movie or not. Make sure first, you love imagination and fantasy. And for the readers who can't accept the changes, don't watch this movie, please. The action scenes and the demon creatures are already good enough to watch, so it isn't really dissapointing anyway. One thing I should tell you, this movie is different from Twilight, don't worry :) For me, this movie is still on the same pretty good level with the novel. I would happily watch the next series, City of Ashes.
