Movies : The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones

INTRODUCTION

Hi all, it is fortunate that this time i managed to catch another movie right at its release and am able to give you guys a review on the movie so that most of you will not have already seen the movie and can consider whether to catch this 130 min action flick in the theatres. OR perhaps its merely worth a weekday ticket... or maybe not seeing at all. In most cases, helping you all manage expectation will definitely help make the trip to the movies more worth your time and money. So its a win-win situation no matter how I look at it!

So for those who don't know about the movie, heres the poster below

Nice looking City.. doesnt really look boney

Lets be realistic though, as far as this movie is concerned, the city is not the STAR or the main character but rather these little fellas below.. and of course the one in the middle is the biggest role!

Star is in middle, the one beside are co-star and the furthest away probably supporting cast.
The natural progression of things. So make sure your always in the middle of your pics!

Next curious question... Why is there a "THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS" in front of the City of Bones? So is this movie the mortal instruments or the city of bones?? Confusing yea? Well basically the City of Bones is part of a bunch of books by a Cassandra Clare. The main title would be The Mortal Instruments and amongst this title there are several books that start with City, namely City of Fallen Angels, City of Glass and City of Ashes. She also has another main series called The Infernal Devices.... which is a three parter series.

BUT, all the above information is for the book fans. Lets be realistic... I would rather watch a movie compared to reading the entire book cause its just paying a few extra dollars to see a book brought to life. And... I don't have to read.... So this review is for those who have NOT read the book. I am not going to talk about how this movie is in line with the book blahblahblah, but rather, how is City of Bones as a movie itself! So there is zero bias for me as I have not read the book at all!

So back to the movie itself, how does it fare on the layman's scale?!?!


Storyline 3/5

We have entered into a age of fantasy books started by the Harry Potter series, then into the Lord of the Ring Series, the into Hunger Games, Percy Jackson and this is next in line, the Mortal Instrument series. The advantages that all these fantasy shows have is that, in terms of storyline, it is more difficult to do badly purely because it is an introduction to a new world and because of that, it feels fresh generally.

Unfortunately, precisely cause its probably the 5th movie to come out in the same style, it feels slightly more ordinary because like all these movies, this first movie is the introduction into the Mortal Instruments world. You will be following the main character's learning of her uniqueness in the world and how to make use of her abilities and all that.. and this is similar to at least 2 of the 5 movies i listed above.

Next, this movie also leans towards the werewolf, vampire fantasy world that we have alongside hunters and the like. As a result, from both this aspects the storyline is fine, but its not spectacularly different in fantasy when compared to movies like underworld and twilight.

As a result, this movie plays out pretty much the way you expect it to, with little elaborate twists in the movie. Don't get me wrong, there are some twists but when you see it, you will think to yourself.... oh so its that kinda movie again. Also, it did get slightly confusing towards the end part and some of the stuff that was done is somewhat unbelievable. (Read, doesn't seem in-line with the character)


Character 3/5

Like in your usual fantasy books, these movies tend to have quite a bit of characters as they probably need to have some important character in every other fantasy race that exists.

At least the 5 characters above have SOME bit of personality, but it is nothing really distinctive or special amidst all the movies that you have now. They also generally seem to be from the same fantasy group so it is not really striking out as totally interesting.

There are other supporting casts that do play a reasonably significant role in this movie and they do try to make an effort to distinguish each of the fantasy races to a certain extent. However, the movie does not focus too much on elaborating on the culture of these races even within the 130mins of the movie.

But just for fun, here is what you will see... its in the posters so its not really spoilers..

The standard Hunter

The usual star of the show who was somehow CHOSEN for some reason

A handsome guy :P

The characters are also conflicted in this movie ala Twilight style but somehow or other, there is a bit LESS connection that you will feel towards them. I am not sure why but its a bit harder to feel the spark...

Cinematography 4/5

There is pretty above average cinematography in this movie in particular why one of the character in this movie loves to throw his weapons into the ground for seemingly no reason. There are also a few good shots and effects in this movie but if this movie is really trying to be an action flick... its just lacking in some areas to make it clearly better then the rest.

Music 3/5

Music is actually pretty forgettable... As per my usual comment, if i know there is music its a 3... if there is some impact called by the music.. its more then that.. if its a full fledged musical.. then the score will be higher. That being said, you could in theory still create a movie whereby the music does have a real positive impact... but thats not this show.

Spectacle 3/5

All in all, this movie tries to be like the movies before it which were converted into the big screen. Unfortunately, due to the many other movies preceding this, it tries pretty hard, but is not, in my opinion, able to stand out well enough from the other movies.

In terms of it being an action flick also, the sad thing about this movie is it did have much potential to go further in this term of action, to make it more exciting and larger on scale. However, they probably took too much time trying to expand on the storyline, which is probably what you should do for the book fans, but took out the action time. In fact, some major clashes or fights were resolved within seconds which probably wont really appease the action lovers.

As a result, thanks to the forgettable and not as unique storyline, as well as the non strong action showing, it didn't do enough to be great. Finally, a little let down point in this movie is that for a movie that could go into a tri or quadlogy, it actually ended properly in this movie itself. As a result, you will have a feeling that the movie is completed, and if you didnt know about the books, you will actually feel it as such. Hence hampering the look forward to next instalment feeling.

Storyline : 3 (Cliche storyline, it would have done better if it was the first one to do this type of story, not really entirely engaging for its 130mins of showtime)
Character : 3 (Many characters, some from different fantasy line, but all give little impression)
Cinematography : 4 (Good try for good shots, there is some immersing value, but not enough)
Music : 3 (Its there, but does not add anything particularly unique)
Spectacle : 3 (Not strong in the storyline department, neither was it strong in the action department)

Overall : 3.2 (Overall, a show you COULD see if you had the time to spare especially during the weekdays. Action fans might be slightly disappointed by the action, storyline fans might be slightly disappointed by the normal sounding story. So the only people who would probably enjoy this movie would be those who dun mind a merely above average story with above average action when viewed together in a package. Still for 2 hrs of time you probably would still be able to sit still and watch the movie till the end but you probably should lower your expectations a bit for the movie if you want to enjoy it.)

Saw the movie? Disagree with my opinions? Share it with me :)