The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) Reviews

• Worse than Twilight, and I loathed Twilight.

  sasha-tifton2013-10-13

  --- SPOILERS AHEAD --- I watched this fim with a friend who has never read the book. I, on the other hand, read it years ago, but wasn't interested enough to continue with the series. However, I was willing to judge it as a film on its own merits, not as a book adaptation. By the end of the movie, we were left disappointed. It was rushed, choppy, unevenly paced, and made no effort to define the world it was set in. All the characters could have died and we would have felt nothing because the film did little to make us care them. FLAWS IN THE FILM: I thought the whole Twilight franchise was awful but despite the dreadfulness of those movies, the plot was never unclear to even those with IQ deficiencies. I can't say the same about The Mortal Instruments.

• Horribly disappointed

  mpurdy1030-772-4967752013-08-23

  Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments is one of my favorite series and I was so excited to see this movie. I've been to plenty of book-to-movie showings, so I knew not to expect the exact same thing, but regardless, I went in with high expectations. The beginning was... weird (and out of order, but that's just my OCD, no biggie). However, this movie was so horribly different from the book that it lost all of it's value. I don't just mean the events were slightly moderated to save time, I mean they changed the entire plot. Jace wasn't terrible- could've been cockier, Clary was horribly over-dramatic, Magnus was expressionless, and they managed to ruin my favorite character: Valentine. He became a bland, one- sided villain, unlike the ingeniously dynamic character Clare made him out to be. The movie had changes in it that ruptured the foundation of the book and a lot of what it stands for, ruining the ingenuity of the plot and the world that Clare built which had me so enraptured from the beginning. It's a shame because they had such potential with this movie. I still can't understand how they could take such a great story line and decide that it was only acceptable to warp it to a point beyond recognition....

• Horrible

  danicas2013-08-22

  Words can't describe how disappointing this film was . Cassandra Clare effed this up . it had the potential of being something good.. lets start with the characters Alec (Kevin Zegers) Is your character going thru a language dilemma ? Are you British , or American..& No one other than the fans of the books got the gay vibe off him, so it was balls confusing to everyone else when Clary outed him . 0/10 Isabelle (Jemima West) Pretty enough for the character, but why change her entire personality from the book? & not to mention her height.. 4/10 Simon(Robert Sheehan) Perfect Simon , from top to bottom But Cassandra Clare,why would you allow an entire story arc change for this character. again other than the fans , no one had a clue why he didn't need his glasses anymore.. and why all of a sudden he is a day walker... where was the rat , where was the birth of a vampire , where was his Jewish jokes!!! this character was the seconded most disappointing portal. 5/10 Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) what the eff ... this , this is not jace. Jamie looks like he is a drug addict , scrawny , unflattering , and not to mention the lack of chemistry between jace and Clary on film. Disgusting performance.. #1 most disappointing thing about this entire film was him . 0/10 Clary (Lily Collins) sigh , obviously this was a money grab of a casting choice. 0/10 Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) If you make such a fuss in the book about his white hair ....WHY DOESN'T HE HAVE WHITE HAAAAAIR!!! arg. JRM , was a terrible Valentine . He made that character into a stubborn child , and not the sly evil devil valentine should've been . And really hodge makes up the idea for jace to be your son REALLY ?!?!?!? bull just bull ! 0/10 Jocelyn (Lena Headey) She wasn't that bad actually , stayed true to character , but i blame the script and how is was made that made her character look like a fool. & Oh , and she has a bad case of the duck lips.. 6/10 Now to talk about the movie itself ( i'll keep it short) Too fast , did not stay true to the book of characters , horrible cinematography, the cheesiest soundtrack, and way too jumpy for fans and newbies alike . Sorry for the harsh review , in fact its my first and most likely my last.But after watching this movie i was heartbroken and i needed to share my frustration with anyone willing to read this, My grammar & spelling are very poor i realize this , so take it as it is and if you go and see this movie go in knowing its not what your wanting to see. -Dancia

• Two hours of my life I'll never get back...

  configuratiion2013-08-22

  There are so many things wrong with this movie, it made me want to scream. I cannot forgive the scene where she freezes the demons. As a group, instead of killing the frozen demons, they walk through the demons and wait for them to unfreeze and have the demons kill the werewolves. Come on! They can kill off the werewolves with more demons. There are so many little things like that that just made the movie stupid for anyone who's older than 15. Oh, and the incest theme, come on. Put two and two together people, and get a frigging DNA test. Also, when "someone" from the inside has let the demons in, think about it, by a process of elimination, there's 5 of you, 4 of whom were together. Just a thought, it'd be the one who wasn't with you. Ta-dah! I really wanted to like this movie, the premise is fantastic. The actors did a very good job with such a silly script, and the special effects are cool. It would help if the characters talked about the same thing instead of randomly jumping topics within a conversation.

• Better than Most are Making it Out to Be

  illyria2502013-08-21

  I just got done watching a midnight showing of City of Bones. First off I will say that I am a fan of the series and I will try to make this review as middle ground as possible. I have spent the last few days reading over threads on the discussion board and once the critics reviews came out I read most of those too. Yes I know a lot were negative and abrasive, and sometimes even childish in their mockery of the young adult genre. I went into this movie as open-minded as possible knowing that there were some changes made to the film. Firstly, several reviews, both good and bad, had issues with the pacing. The time line is very condensed at the start of the film so things do seem to be happening in a whirlwind. This is because they condensed a few of the events from the novel into a shorter time span to enable the movie not to drawl on and be way too long. I didn't mind how they chose to change things up a bit and thought they tied things together fairly well. I just could see it being a bit hard to follow for the non fans that don't know what was cut out. I was worried about the romance being played up too much since some reviews were so caught up in the triangle. It was a small part of the bigger story much like in the book. Parts of it did come off a bit cheesy, but overall it did not overpower the movie like I thought it was. I really enjoyed the action sequences. They weren't too short or too long and I felt they were well coordinated. There's definitely enough action for the guys that will be dragged to this with their girlfriends. Some of the changes will probably be unsettling to the fans or upsetting because more of the film was different than I was warned or expected. Many reviewers were adamant that it kept to the book most of the time, but I would say it was a pretty even mix. Like most fans I had a certain idea how some scenes or characters would be and I felt a little let down because characters weren't how I imagined or expected them. Magnus falls flat and lacks the charisma and attitude of his book counterpart. I also felt the way Valentine was played/portrayed did not fall in line with how he was in the book. But everyone who reads has there own interpretations and he wasn't close to he Valentine I had envisioned. Lastly I feel this is a pretty solid movie for the fans and non readers. I wouldn't say it's perfect, few movies have ever come close to achieving that status. There are a lot of good elements going on here and a lot of decent acting from people I least expected it given the time they had to actually develop the characters. If you have any interest in watching the movie don't let all the negativity sway you. Go in with an open mind and make your own judgement. I won't say I loved this movie, but I did really enjoy it and would definitely see it again.