Movie Review: Mortal Instruments--City of Bones

I've had The Immortal Instruments trilogy sitting on my shelf since spring and haven't had time to read them. I didn't let that stop me from seeing the movie today, though. After all, I didn't even know Twilight was a book until after I saw the movie!

For the few people in the world such as myself, that didn't have a clue as to what The Immortal Instruments is about, let me give you a quick rundown.

Teenager, Clary Fray, witnesses a murder in a club in NYC, but she's the only one who can see the participants. She soon learns that they are "shadowhunters" and she herself is descended from a long line of shadowhunters, also known as demon-slayers. Life only goes down hill from there. First her mother goes missing and then Clary finds herself fighting and warring in the midst of this invisible world that functions as an alternate universe along side the "real" world.


My friend, Pattie. of Books, Thoughts and a Few Adventures, told me The Immortal Instruments received some pretty sucky reviews. I was kind of surprised because the previews looked pretty interesting. Well, I've been influenced by reviews in the past and decided not to see some movies. Not this time. I had to know for myself. I'm glad I did.

I had such a good time! It's not perfect, but The Immortal Instruments is certainly entertaining. It made me interested in getting started on reading the books. I really need to do that because I got a little confused about some of the plot points in the movie. The Valentine character is on a quest to find the "eternal cup", but I'm not really sure why or what he plans to to with it. He did talk about it, but I missed some of what he said. There's a guy who was kind of in the role of Clary's guardian, but I'm sure there's more to him as well. I think some of my confusion is because there is so much going on in this movie. To say it's action-packed is an understatement. It was action turbo-charged!

Some of the dialogue was a bit cheesy, but there were laugh-out-loud moments too. I cracked up watching Clary's mother in a fight scene. Let's just say, that woman put a hurtin' on those guys! LOL!!! The Jace character was cute and the focus of Clary's affection. Her best-friend-wanna-be-more, Simon, was good looking too, but in a geekier kind of way. I could tell they had his character wear glasses to take the edge off his cute looks and give the upper hand to Jace.

The film kind of had a Harry Potter feel to it. Maybe it was the magical elements and the scenery. The imagery and set was dark, lush and very rich. The Valentine character reminded me of Valdomort.

All in all, I truly enjoyed this movie. I've heard that those who read the book were disappointed with some changes. See. That's the value of seeing the movie first. I don't have a clue as to what's been changed or left out. I don't have an image of the characters in my head. I either like the movie for itself or I don't. In this case, I really liked it and can't wait to see the next installment!

Toodles, ya'll!