Movie Review: The Mortal Instruments City of Bones

Movie Review:
The Mortal Instruments
City of Bones
Release Date: 8/21/13
3 stars

First off I have to say anyone who reads this blog knows I love the Mortal Instruments. I consider it to be one of my favorite YA series so I may be a little harsher than most when it comes to this review. I also want to warn you there are going to be a lot of spoilers. How can I explain why I gave it only three stars if I don't point out specific facts?

Moving on I am one of those people who understands not everything can be exactly the same way it was in the books. I get that you are dealing with a different kind of audience so subtly may not always work. One huge complaint I have though is when Hodge and Valentine come right out and say they are going to lie about Jace and Clary being brother and sister! I mean come on, this is a huge plot motivation in the next books how can you just let everyone know?

Ok I'm getting ahead of myself I should probably try to do this in a more systematic way so let me get back to the beginning of the movie and start from there.

I thought over all the casting was well done. I would have preferred someone with a broader body type to play Jace I think the actor they chose seemed to lanky. Since I took my husband to see the movie I asked him for his feedback and he said his only complaint was that Jace seemed too small to fight "those big guys". So I guess I'm not the only one who felt that way.

Now lets talk about missing characters? Where the heck are the Lightwoods and their youngest son. Maybe I missed it but I don't think they were mentioned at all. Again they have an important role to play later on and yet, nada. And how about no one explaining that the Lightwoods and Hodge are stuck in NY because they betrayed the Clave with Valentine and how Jace's dad was one of them too?The whole showdown with Valentine being in the Institute and the Institute having a portal seemed way off as well. The entire scene at Magnus Bane's Party was totally wrong. And the vampires looked so damn creepy.

I know the second I post this I'm going to think of a bunch of other things that bugged me but I think I hit the big ones.

Now there were some things I liked. The Institute and club were fantastic. The demons themselves were also excellently done and the fight scenes were great. Magnus Bane was perfect, and since he is one of my favorite characters over all that is saying a lot. I think that the relationship between Clary and her mom comes through almost as well as it does in the novel, which is important. Simon is also great, every bit the hapless teenage boy in love with his best friend. The costumes were all very cool, just the way I pictured them from the book.

Overall if you hadn't read the books I think it would be a decent movie. Its just frustrating as a reader when things that seem so important to the story get left out or changed. Overall I think The Hunger Games was a much better book to movie adaptation.