'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' Movie Review - Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower  | Movie Reviews Site

Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower

"The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" Movie Review: 2 Stars

by Roger Moore

There is most certainly an audience for the film "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones": fans of the six (planned) novels about demons, supernatural demon fighters, vampires, werewolves, witches and warlocks.

They'll thrill to all the endless litany of runes, talismans, history and "rules" of this world of Shadowhunters descended from an angel who showed up to help crusading knights a thousand years ago. They'll eagerly await the brief, throwaway visit to the "City of Bones" (a cemetery) of the title.

And if you love exposition and shapely if bland young actors in leather, skinny jeans, knee boots, Goth cocktail dresses and heavy eye makeup, this may be the movie for you.

Lily Collins plays Clary, the birthday girl whose mother (Lena Headey of "Game of Thrones") never told her about her heritage, why she keeps seeing signs and people with great hair stalking and stabbing demons in nightclubs and whatnot. Clary, dragging her unsuspecting admirer Simon (Robert Sheehan) along, finds out.

She was born into this world. Simon? He's just a muggle. Sorry, that's mundane, a clueless human.

They learn all this from the mop-topped warrior-explainer Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), who drives a Triumph motorcycle, flirts with Clary and has the tedious job of explicating every single thing to them and to the audience.

"All religions assist us in our battle," he says as they rummage through the demon-killing gear stashed beneath a New York church altar.

"Magnus Bane. He's a warlock. I should've known," he mutters. Of course.

The Shadowhunters fight "a war that can never be won, but must always be fought" the leader of their "Institute" (Jared Harris) teaches. We're invited to draw our own parallels to modern battles against terrorism.

Sometimes, vampires interfere. Sometimes, werewolves help. Johann Sebastian Bach's contrapuntal compositions play a part. Homoerotic come-ons play into the love triangles set up here.

A magical cup, a "mortal instrument," is sought by good guys and bad (the latter including Valentine, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers).

Cool effects? "The Portal" is a watery door to points in space and time, and the runes -- tattooed over the arms and chests of the Shadowhunters -- glow when they're doing their rune-ish thing.

It's a stilted, silly mishmash of earlier fantasy franchises, with the occasional decent joke and frequent brawls involving swordplay and back flips.

Director Harald Zwart has "Agent Cody Banks" and the recent "Karate Kid" among his credits, which tells you the best they're hoping for here is a "Percy Jackson" level of success. This franchise's fate was sealed when bargain-hunters Screen Gems got the distribution rights to it.

And there's no stopping them. "City of Ashes," a second adaptation, is due out next year, probably to be dumped in late August, just like this one.

 

"The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" Movie Trailer

 

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of fantasy violence and action, and some suggestive content).

Running time: 2:10.

Cast: Lily Collins (Clary); Jamie Campbell Bower (Jace Wayland); Jemima West (Isabelle Lightwood); Kevin Zegers (Alec Lightwood); Robert Sheehan (Simon Lewis).

Credits: Directed by Harald Zwart; written by Jessica Postigo, based on the novel by Cassandra Clare; produced by Don Carmody, Michael Lynne, Robert Kulzer and Robert Shaye. A Sony Pictures release.

'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' Movie Review - The Best Movie Reviews Online