City of Bones: The Mortal Instruments

I always like to watch a movie before I read the book. This movie came out last year and I remember that my main reason for wanting to watch it was for my crush on Jonathan Rhys Myers and my Hobbit Dwarf Crush Kili  I know that the biggest complain about this movie was by the book lovers.  So as someone who knows better I am judging JUST the movie.  Overall I have to say that my biggest problem with this movie was the "love interest."  I just didn't like him for her, and I could tell just by watching it that his character was written better than that for some reason.  It really didn't diminish from the overall effect of the movie though.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a 2013 German/Canadian Action Adventure Science Fantasy movie.  It is based on the first book in the Mortal Instrument Series with the same title: City of Bones.  The book is written by Cassandra Clare. 

The main character Clary starts seeing a weird symbol all around her and is even drawing it in her sleep.  During the movie she has a birthday and I was not clear on this but I think that she was 15 turning 16.  It seemed to be that it would have been more appropriate to have her be turning 18, but again this is a made up world.  I just don't feel like her age fit in with things like her mom not freaking out when she stayed out all night to go to a club...  but perhaps I grew up with a different kind of mom.  At this club she witnesses a murder that no one else seems able to see.  This gets her involved with a group of people known as "the shadow hunters."  When he mother disappears Clary finds herself joining up with them to help her find her mother and in the meantime she starts to find out that everything she thinks she knows about her life has been misled.

This movie had quite the cast to include:
Lily Collins as Clary (Mirror, Mirror, The Blind Side, Adbuction)
Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace  (Twilight Saga, Camelot, Sweeney Todd)
Kevin Zegers as Alec (Gossip Girl, Frozen, Jane Austen Book Club, Titans, Air Bud)
Jemima West as Isabelle (Borgias, Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc)
Robert Sheehan as Simon (The Borrowers, Misfits, Season of the Witch, A Turtle's Tale)
Lena Headey as Jocelyn (Game of Thrones, 300, The Purge, Brothers Grimm)
CCH Pounder as Dorothea (Warehouse 13, Sons of Anarchy, Law & Order SVU, Avatar, The Shield)
Jared Harris as Hodge (Lincoln, Mad Men, Fringe, Sherlock Holmes)
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine (Dracula, Tudors, From Paris With Love, August Rush)
Aiden Turner as Luke (The Hobbit, Being Human)

When the book author Cassandra Clare originally decided to look into the idea of turning her story into a movie she had a hard time finding a studio to accept the story with a female role.  many studios she approached wanted her to change to story to feature a male lead role and she refused, which I think made for a better story.  Originally the character of Jace was offered to Alex Pettyfer (Magic Mike) but he turned it down.  7 other actors were considered for the role before it ended up going to Jamie Campell Bower.  Filming took place from August to November of 2012 in Toronto, Hamilton,Ontario & New York City.  Demi Lovato and Colbie Caillat wrote songs specifically for this movie and are featured on the soundtrack. 

Overall the movie was received negatively from critics stating unoriginality and failure to connect with the audience.  There were also negative comments in regards to the screen play writing.  Reportedly $60Mil was spent in marketing on a film that grossed $90 million.  A lot of the failure in reception was said to be due to marketing to a very narrow audience of teens due to Clary's reported age.  In May of 2013 a sequel; The City of Ashes; was already announced even before the movie was released.  The principal actors are slated to be on board even though the sequel work has been pushed back to sometime this year.  Sigourney Weaver has reportedly also signed on to be a part of the sequel.

My overall take on this movie was probably higher than most.  I didn't have very high expectations and was mostly expecting to watch for some love of fantasy and eye candy.  I actually thought that the overall base story was quite compelling.  I felt that there were some things that were new in the fantasy movie realm.  I like the idea of the Underworld and the Angel Blood in the shadow hunters.  I feel like there were definitely a few missing pieces as often happens from book to movie and trying to cram an entire story into a short amount of time.  When I watched this movie I felt like it was a wonderful beginning, but that the story definitely needed to go on.  Overall I was quite entertained and I hope that a sequel does come out to continue the story.  I also feel like I definitely need to check the books out even though I normally shy away from Young Adult novels.  Overall I enjoyed this movie and give it a 4/5 stars. 

You can visit the official site here: City of Bones