My husband and I saw this last week and I want to weigh in on why I think this is/was a pretty good film and why it was not. Firstly, I dragged my husband to this and he liked it. I dragged him to Hunger Games and a Twilight film; he mentally blocked out Twilight: Eclipse and doesn't remember seeing it. Good call. He wasn't that impressed with The Hunger Games. He just thinks Jennifer Lawrence is hot, so he had eyecandy for a couple hours. I have been reading and seeing a lot of articles on this film and some of them are unjustified. The most common being: This is another Twilight rip off.

This is ANOTHER Twilight Rip-Off

No, not really. If you delve enough into reading books, you are going to find that there are common threads that exist in many YA and Adult plotlines. If you go into the paranormal genre you are going to find a lot more. So now we have a YA/Paranormal fiction book. From what I have been reading Cassandra Clare apparently ripped whole chunks of some Harry Potter fan fiction online. While this may be the case, that's not for me to say. I just want to examine why I think this was a good film. Back on the Twilight comparison. Twilight had little to no substance story wise. I read the books before they became films or at least the first few anyways. I enjoyed them because they were time passers. If you don't think too much, they are books you can enjoy at face value. If you do start thinking about it-- there are some enormous plot holes, like you could park your car in. With that aside, Bella is a superficial twat. Excuse my language. Robert Pattinson said it best:

And I DO believe that Stephenie Meyer as a few nuts loose. I think the reason why this novel appealed to so many people was because of its simplicity. The overall story arc wasn't that complicated. But, Mortal Instruments IS complicated and makes you think. While it borrows from a lot of fragmented legend and mythology, it does come together in a fluid way.

Why I think the film was good

The pg-13 rating really did it for me. They are able to be a little bold with this movie. They weren't specifically targeting tweens. They stuck to the story pretty well and kept you hooked through the whole film. There wasn't a whole lot of angst-y staring and time fillers. It was balls to the wall action and intrigue. I was really dismayed that Jamie Campbell Bower would be playing Jace, but he really did a great job bringing that character to life.

What I didn't like

The blatant cheesiness of the blossoming relationship between Clary and Jace. It was cheesy. I will just come out and say it. It made me uncomfortable and even the raunchiest of sex doesn't furrow my brow. It was just awkward. There is one point where they were in Jace's rooftop garden and everything was all sparkly... It just detracted from the tone of the movie. Their relationship felt forced in the film.

Labels: Cassandra Clare, City of Bones movie review, movie review