The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Movie Review

This review is coming from someone who never read the book. For the past months, I was hoping to watch any kind of fiction movie and I’m glad I found this one.

Genre: Fantasy, action, adventure, romance, fiction, teen
Casts: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Lena Headey, Aidan Turner
Writer: Cassandra Claire

Story: In New York City, an ordinary teenager, Clary Fray (Lily Collins) begins seeing a strange symbol, worrying her mother Jocelyn Fray (Lena Headey) and her mother's friend Luke Garroway (Aidan Turner). One day, when she comes home, her mother disappears and her home is ruined. From that moment, her world is upside down. Little she knows that she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. In order to find her mother, Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld. Suddenly her world is filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures. This movie is based on the worldwide best-selling book series by Cassandra Claire

Overall, it’s not better than Harry Potter, but it’s certainly better than Twilight. In fact, this movie is difference genre from twilight. If you’re looking for romance fiction thing, this movie is wrong from you. I mean this movie will never replace twilight, if that’s what you looking for. There is more adventure, mysteries, fiction than the romance part. For someone who loves fantasy, adventure, and fiction, you’re gonna like the movie. It doesn’t make me want to read the book after all, but it entertained me enough. In addition, if you’re the fans of Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, you will love this.

Acting  

I never read the book before, so I don’t understand how Carly is supposed to be. But for someone who is described as “ordinary teenager”, Lily Collins is everything but ordinary. Oh Come on, she’s too gorgeous to portray Carly. Obviously, her “commercial” face is more of the reason. Anyway, I can’t watch this movie without being reminded by her role in "Mirror Mirror". It's because her role there is about the same character in this movie that is weak in the beginning but slowly gain courage and power as the story goes. The thing is, her acting here it’s almost the same with "Mirror Mirror" and is not convincing enough sadly. She lacks of toughness and struggle look somehow. I really expected more from her as the protagonist,. Anyway, the last time I saw her in "Stuck in love", her acting there is much better than this.

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"Isn't this the part where you start tearing off pieces of your shirt to bind my wounds?" - Clary 

"If you wanted me to take off my shirt all you had to do was ask" - Jace 

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Let’s talk about the handsome, dreamy Jamie Campbell Bower 
I can not tell you, how much I love to see him here than in Twilight. I've already laid my eyes on him since Twilight, but those movie doesn't do him good. I think his acting as Jace Wayland is very good despite his lack of "healthy" figure (which bugs me so much. How come a hero looks like a junkie??). In fact, He and Robert Sheehan (who playSimon) stole the show for the acting. The fight scenes were very engaging, especially the ending scene. Anyway, as the action movie I wished they had made the fight scene a little bit longer, so there are no easy struggle. This is the thing about the movie, for the first hour there are a lot of information they give. When it comes to fighting scene, they made it quite short so it won’t take too many minutes. 
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“Are you tired? ” - Jace 

“I've never been more awake” - Clary 

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Soundtrack

I'm not really like the soundtrack in the scene garden between Jace and Carly, it feels loud and cheap. They really need to learn how to score music as sophisticated as the Twilight work. Even though I’m not a fan of Twilight, I think they have beautiful music score and cinematography in the fan fiction movie world. In term of movie soundtrack of this year, it should go to Lana Del Ray “Young and Beautiful” in The Great Gatsby.

One thing I love about this movie, it’s the chemistry between Jace and Carly that works so well. From the moment Jace helps Carly, we knows they’re made for each other. But when there's a possibility that Jace and Clary is actually brother and sister, it's just so heartbreaking. Is there anyway they can be together? Are Carly and Jace truly siblings?
Let’s hope not. I can’t wait to see the sequel.
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“Remember when I said I'd never seen an angel? Well, I lied”

 - Jace to Clary

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In the last scene, I'm really glad to see the development of the character. For all this time, we see how Jace is being nothing but coward and jealous to Simon. He never really talks his most honest thought and feeling to Clary, but when he does I'm really proud of him.

At Last,

If there any conclusion from this movie is that, shadowhunters are british, werewolf are irish and the humans are american (I know I know..it's a lame conclusion, but it is true, go watch The Mortal Instruments)

Rating: 6.3/10. I enjoy the movie, probably because I’m a sucker for fan fiction movie. If you’re looking for this particular genre movie, Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters is also a good (and better) choice.

See The Great Gatsby review here>>

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Trivia
Lily Collins was previously a fan of the books, when she found out that a film was being made, she made numerous phone calls to ensure her role as Clary. Meanwhile, Alex Pettyfer was first choice for the role of Jace Wayland, but he turned it down (source: IMDB). 

Can you imagine Alex Pettyfer really play Jace?