Bob's Quick Look - The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)

Based on the first book of the bestselling series, this film centers on a teenage girl who is thrust into a world of dark mysticism when her mother disappears, and evil forces hunt for her and an ancient artifact her mother was hiding. As she searches for her lost mother, and learns about the angel blood in her veins and the power she possesses, she is torn between her closest friend and the young warrior who is sworn to protect her. *Spoiler alert* I’ve heard quite a few people describe this movie as Harry Potter meets Twilight. I can see that. As with both, the main story element centers on a “normal” person being thrust into a supernatural environment. Visually, it has a bit in common with the Harry Potter films; especially with the scenes inside “the Institute” and visual effects such as the dimensional portal. It also carries the love triangle aspect and the teenage target audience of the Twilight saga. Even though this film would not have to reach far to do so, it does possess a level of sophistication that these other two franchises lack. Even though there were times that felt like the writers wanted to take us from point a to point be a little too quickly, the movie had a good flowing motion with a decent balance of action scenes and story telling to keep the plot moving. And I will say that this is a beautiful movie to watch on the big screen. While the motion was fluid for the most part, it does get choppy at a couple of points. It also seemed at times that there were things going on that one might understand if they had read the novel. When I saw this movie, I had not, so I was left with questions such as, “Why could Simon not see Jace in the club, but could see him later on?” This is answered in the book but not the movie, as far I remember.
All in all, I would say this is a pretty good summer movie; visually striking with an interesting premise. This film could have used a rewrite or two of the script before being filmed with focus on the fact that not everyone in the theater has read the book.