The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

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With the Twilight Saga out of theaters, something naturally had to take its spot. I mean, what else are 11-15 year-old girls going to hype about now? The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a perfect choice to fill the vacancy. It's based on a book series with a small, devout following, and like Twilight, the movie has a lot of potential that it fails to bring to fruition.

New York teenager Clary (Lily Collins) lives with her single mother. She has no idea that both she and her mother are both "shadowhunters" by blood and are entrusted with killing the demons that walk the Earth. When her mother disappears, Clary is forced to confront her past and search for the secrets of her family's history (and one of those secrets is a total Star Wars rip off). Clary meets fellow shadowhunter Jace, who introduces her to a team of demon-killers who hide away in a secluded area of the city. The group, along with Lily's human friend Simon, seek to get to the roots of Clary's past and save her and her mother.

I truly wasn't expecting much from this movie, but was slightly impressed by a few takeaways. Lily Collins gave a stellar performance, and she did all the best with the material that was given to her. There was a decent amount of comic relief, and I was surprised at how good it was. These were really about the only things I can say I truly enjoyed about The Mortal Instruments. It was over 2 hours long, and believe me when I say they used up far too much time. The pacing and story of the first half originally had me on track to give this a 3.5/5. But as more characters were introduced, more plot devices were thrown in, more mindless action dominated the screen, and more twists occurred, I lost interest and just wanted it to end. 

The Mortal Instruments is no failure of a movie; it's just not an achievement in any significant way. But if you're dragged to the theater by someone who "just has to see it," you won't be totally disappointed. There is an interesting story here, but it's just not good enough to recommend. If you have the option, go see Kick-Ass 2 instead. In case you didn't read my review on that, I loved it.

Side note: Humans in this movie are referred to as "mundanes" by the shadowhunters. Is it just me, or don't the first two letters of that word already help serve as a derogatory term for humans in a different literary universe? 

Rating: 2.5/5