The Mortal Instruments to Film
I finally watched City of Bones, the movie. I’ve been debating writing a review for it since I first watched it and have since watched it two more times.
I’m trying to figure it out – why it seems to just fall flat.
(For the record, despite my use of the marketing, I am still opposed to book and movie covers/posters featuring shirtless men. It seems so unnecessary and ridiculous. I see it and all I can think is ‘I’m too sexy for my shirt’ in the most absurd voice that makes the song even more ironic than intended.)
Lily Collins did a great job. I have a crush on Jamie Campbell Bower, have since I heard him sing – then watching him in Camelot just set it in stone. He’s amazing, not just pretty. I’ve been giggling at Robert Sheehan since Misfits. Lena Heady is my hero. When have I not loved Jonathan Rhys Meyers? – I’m 30, so pretty much never. (The movie August Rush makes me swoon to no end.) So it’s not the cast.
The action sequences are brilliant. Even my Kung Fu self loves them. My I- Read-The-Book self loves them. They are grand and epic enough. The weapons are fantastic.
The graphics are great, the demons exciting and true to descriptions.
But something just didn’t quite work.
Then, I realized what it was:
The ending was all a muck. We gloss over Simon becoming a rat, we skip through Valentine’s castle. Jace is awake the whole time. The writers just gave up halfway through and quit trying to stay true to the book. They tried to wrap up 485 pages into a short teen flick of generic proportions when it should have been the introduction to something as grand as Harry Potter.
It fell flat. It brings forth the reminder: “Don’t judge a book by its movie.”
The movie isn’t bad per se, it just makes me sad. It could have been epic and instead it was a ‘pretty good date movie.’
Of course, Jamie Campbell Bower is still ever so pretty and makes it all worth it anyway. He also manages to radiate that he read the book and knows who Jace is supposed to be. Of course, I have no way of knowing if he read the books or not, but it makes me feel better thinking someone on set did. And if he didn’t, his performance is even more impressive.
The movie is a B+
I wanted it to be so much more.
Anakalian Whims 
Book to Movie Confessions | Anakalian Whims said,
July 7, 2014 at 6:24 pm
[…] gave a review of the film when I first saw it. I was late to the party, I don’t rush to the theatres […]