Movie: The Mortal Instruments: City of
Bones
Rated: 4/5
Viewed: Three times.
Okay so I am finally writing my review for
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie. Let me tell you that for most of
the movie I am actually really happy with what they produced. It was very well
done. The special effects and the world creating really blew my mind. The
acting really was superb in my opinion. I will give you guys my thoughts on
most of the actors, so forgive me if it gets boring but as you all know, this
is my favourite book series, so I like talking about everything pertaining it!
Let’s start with Clary. Lily literally
embodied the character of Clary. She did such a spectacular job and really
honed in on what Clary really is about, even to the last minuscule expression.
I see people complaining about the hair colour and Lily’s eyebrows and I’m just
here like, seriously? Get over it people, there is nothing wrong with her
eyebrows. I LOVE that she embraces who and what she is and does not try to
conform to what society expects her to look like. She is such a wonderful role
model for younger girls and all of us should strive to accept ourselves like
she has accepted herself. As for Clary’s hair colour, everybody has their own
vision, personally, I liked this look better and it is what i normally imagined
when reading, but that’s just me. Hair colour does not equate acting ability,
remember that folks.
Jace Wayland. Can I just say, BY THE ANGEL
(yes I am very geeky, but I think we all are). Jamie is Jace in every way
possible. It was like he was born to play this role. The sarcasm, arrogance,
everything just seemed so natural and the fact that he did all his stunts himself,
that just screams Jace. So when I still see people saying that he is too ugly
or he wasn’t Jace at all, it seriously leaves me dumbstruck. Yes Jamie isn’t
your normal type of good looking but come on people, the dude is not ugly. He
might not be your Jace but he is the one chosen to portray him. None of these
actors are the characters I imagine in my head and they never will be, but as
long as they do the essence of the characters justice, then I’m happy.
Simon. I loved Robbie’s portrayal of Simon,
it really was done perfectly. His facial expressions when he was around Jace
was simply golden, they cracked me up every single time. Oh and the scene where
he tells Clary he loves her, almost brought me to tears, I was like, “AWWWWWWWW
poor baby!!!!” He did the role of ‘confused mundane’ justice. I literally could
not have asked for a better Simon. But am I the only one who would have been
okay with the fact if Robbie just kept his accent and made Simon Irish, because
sweet Lord does he have a yummy accent.
Alec. Okay so I am willing to admit that I
was not on board with the whole Kevin Zegers as Alec thing. He just seemed too
old and just didn’t scream Alec to me. Boy oh boy did I eat my words. I didn’t
like Alec from the start and I still do not like him, I know shoot me, and
Kevin just reinforced my dislike of the guy. He did Alec so perfectly, even
though he didn’t say much. Now that to me is acting. If you can bring a
character to life by only body language and facial expressions, then I shall
bow down to your awesomeness. The one thing I did not like though was the fact
that Alec didn’t try to hide himself from everyone because honestly he is so
afraid of people noticing that he is gay, that he hides behind his clothes and
his hair. He tries to make himself seem very ordinary. I did not get that.
Isabelle. We haven’t seen much of Jemima
because she had been filming other movies during the promotion so I didn’t get
a real feel for her but when she walked into Pandemonium I was entranced! The confidence and the whole “using her
beauty as a whip” really showed. She literally embodied bad ass femaleness. I
was so wowed by her. PERFECTNESS PERSONIFIED!!!!
Magnus. Okay people might not like this but
I was not wowed by Godfrey’s portrayal of Magnus. It lacked so much. He just
seemed like a normal dude. There was no oomf, no pazazz, no flamboyance, no
sass. There just was no Magnus. He wasn’t sarcastic at all. His acting was good
but his understanding of Magnus as a whole just fell short. Magnus is one of my
ultimate favourite characters of all time, so I was so disappointed. Oh and he
should have kept his accent. It would’ve added to Magnus’s exotic ambience.
Valentine. THE HAIR, OH MY GOD THE
HAIR!!!!!! Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a great actor and very very yummy looking
but even though he seemed dangerous, it didn’t feel like Valentine to me.
Firstly, Valentine’s hair colour is actually part of the plot of the movie
because how are they going to do the Sebastian thing? I don’t get it, and what
was up with the Jamican weave? Valentine is poised and stylish and calm and
cool and collected. He isn’t like BOOM IN YOUR FACE crazy you know? His crazy
is on the inside, not for the world to see. So I didn’t much care for his
portrayal of Mr V.
Jocelyn and Luke I’ll do together since we
didn’t really see that much of the. I thought they did the roles justice,
although I didn’t feel a connection between them. Jocelyn was seriously fierce
with the whole kitchen fighting scene, just wowza and I loved the part where
Luke fights the demons in the in the institute. It showed his old shadowhunter
abilities.
Hodge. He was done splendidly by Jared
Harris. I really felt for him and the curse and he appeared as the Hodge I saw
in my head. The way he observed Clary and the way he was with Valentine, he
really showed that Hodge honestly is afraid of Valentine and that’s why he did
what he did.
Pangborn and Blackwell. They were really
funny but sometimes I felt they went a bit overboard you know? They didn’t seem
menacing enough in my eyes.
Okay so now I will talk about what I didn’t
like. Let me start with the soundtrack, though the actual score was Harry
Potter quality in my opinion, the actual soundtrack was seriously horrible. It
did not give the feel of this dark shadowhunter world. I’m sorry but I just do
not imagine pop songs when I read the books. It has more of a rock, darker feel
to it. They shouldn’t just create a soundtrack because it is mainstream and
then more people will like it. It should capture the feel of the story and it
just didn’t.
The script...yeah um Jessica Postigo really
did a poor job with the script. None of the mythologies, except the existence
of shadowhunters, were explained. She didn’t explain the Silent Brothers or the
Downworlders, the Accords, the weapons, anything really. And honestly that
would’ve maybe added like 20 minutes to the movies. It isn’t that much of a
time issue to have a 2h30min movie. My biggest issue was the fact that Madame
Dorethea didn’t turn into Abbadon, I mean honestly? That was such a major part
of the book and it was awesome! That scene wasn’t nearly as dire as it was in
the book and THEN SHE WALKED OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT!!! WHAT THE HELL!! The other
thing I didn't like, the institute was built around the portal...oh really? I
thought Henry created the portal with Magnus. That was just so inaccurate. I
didn’t appreciate that. And Clary has the cup in the end, not Valentine...um
that is the plot of the whole first three books completely done away with. The
last thing was the fact that Valentine almost killed Jace. Valentine is
supposed to try and get Jace over to his side, not make it so that he hates him
to the point of no return?
Please don't take my review as something bad or negative. I loved the movie, I really did. I just had a few issues, but those really were the only ones. The rest of the movie I really loved, and though, those issues are present it din't take away from me loving the movie.
Other than these few issues I really did love the movie and I am so grateful that it was made. Now,SS I just hope we get City of Ashes. If we do not, I will go into a serious state of depression.
Other than these few issues I really did love the movie and I am so grateful that it was made. Now,SS I just hope we get City of Ashes. If we do not, I will go into a serious state of depression.
Nice honesty. I didn't like the movie as much as you did, but I'm not a movie person in general. The special effects were amazing though. At one point I had to look away and was hiding because it was gross, and I never thought myself to be squeamish. You liked the acting and actors way more than I did... but I guess that's super subjective.
ReplyDelete-P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
The Mortal Instruments are next on my list to listen to at work thanks to this movie. They'd been on my peripheral radar before the trailers for it came out. However, after the (in my opinion) disaster of Beautiful Creatures, I was really hesitant to read it first then see the movie. I can usually separate movies and books better if I see the movie first.
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of things I really liked, but I got the overall feeling that the movie only scratched the surface, that the world was bigger than we were getting to see. I <3ed Jace (but I've had a thing for Jamie since he debuted in Sweeney Todd) and Lily as Clary really impressed me in general. Her reaction when Simon told her he loved her was so completely genuine--such a beautiful piece of acting.
Magnus was actually painful for me--even having not read the books. I have to respectfully disagree with his acting--at least in the scene where he's explaining casting the memory spell on Clary. It was so straightforward and dully delivered it actually yanked me out of the movie. So disappointing after such a fun entrance (what with both Clary and Jace thanking him for calling them hot, and he means Alec). It felt like someone completely disinterested was delivering the exposition.
And that twist, the pain between Jace and Clary was so beautifully played... just had to love it.
Over all, looking forward to the books. ^_^