Director: Harald Zwart
Talent: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers
Release Date: 30th August 2013
Do you like young adult orientated fantasy fiction? Do you like werewolves, vampires, hellhounds and all manner of nightmarish beasties? Do you like not-so-believable romances between pouting, wide eyed adolescents? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above you’ll like The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and even if you answered ‘no’ to all or some of the above you’ll probably get a kick out of this preposterous, silly, jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none (would-be) blockbuster.
Clary Fray (Lily Collins) is a girl who’s always been a little different — she’s not sure how or why, but she’s sure she’s different from other teenagers. Turns out she is different: she’s a shadowhunter, a race of half-human, half-angel demon hunters that live in an invisible castle in the middle of New York City. Clary’s power is unearthed through a chance encounter with Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell Bower) in a NYC club. Together they embark on a quest to retrieve a mystical cup — one of the titular Mortal Instruments — and this quest takes them on a whirlwind adventure which crams every possible monster/horror/fantasy story beat into the film’s two-hour running time.
The Mortal Instruments is so dumb, that it’s just dumb enough to be, well… clever. Go see it, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll rush out and buy the books, the t-shirt and the soft-drink and you’ll love your new life.
