Movie Review: The Mortal Instruments

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, as most of you may know, if based on the hugely popular YA series by Cassandra Clare. I read the first two books in this series ages ago but admit to remembering very little about it. I went years between reading book 1 and 2 and had difficulty remembering what had happened in the first book.

My first impressions of this movie were that I enjoyed it. The world building was good, though there definitely could have been some more detail provided in certain spots. But I did not have any difficulty following along and things made sense for the most part. The visuals were great. I especially liked the City of Bones and wish we could have seen a little bit more of it, especially since it’s part of the title of the book/movie. That scene was quite short and I wish we had learned more about it.

Lily Collins was convincing as Clary and was the right mix of vulnerable and tough. She also had some great hair throughout, which I was insanely jealous of. People seem to love Jace but I didn’t have much of an opinion of him going in. Jamie Campbell Bower was good though and I totally believed his chemistry with Clary. One of my favorite characters was Simon, played by Robert Sheehan. He was great as Clary’s slightly nerdy, super dependable best friend who also happens to be in love with her. I was a little disappointed in Isabelle and Alec however. The actors were fine but their characters were not very developed (esp Isabelle) and I would have liked to have seen more of their family and team dynamic. Alec and Jace are supposed to be really close but you just don’t see it in the movie. I wish they had given both of them more screen time. Also, wasn’t Isabelle a super bitch in the books? That’s what I remember but she seemed pretty tame in the movie.  I am also on the fence about the actor who plays Magnus Bane. He looked great but his scenes were a bit wooden. He also didn’t have much screen time so it’s hard to judge.

The action sequences were really great. The fighting looked really well choreographed and I really liked the fight at the end between Jace and Valentine. The sword work and footwork in that scene were fantastic.

The romance between Jace and Clary was believable. The two definitely have chemistry, which I noticed when I saw the cast at Wonder Con this year. There are a few super cheesy moments (hello sprinklers and bad romance ballad) but, for the most part, I didn’t have a problem with it. SPOILER (if you haven’t read the series yet, skip down to the next paragraph). The film also veers from the book and decides to tell the audience straight away that the incest plot is all a lie. This is a big change from the book since I know that the are they or aren’t they brother and sister plot goes at least into book 3 of the series. I understand why they did this though because the film had no idea if there would even be another movie and I don’t think most movie audiences would really be into a possible incest romance. END SPOILER. Hardcore books fans may disagree with me on this but I did not have an issue with it.

Overall, the movie was really entertaining and had some great action sequences and good performances all around. It’s not a movie I would buy but I would totally watch it if it was on cable and I would go see a sequel :)

Thanks for reading this rambling review of The Mortal Instruments. Have you seen it yet? What did you think?