Pop Culture: Movie Review: Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

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First things first: did you see how many colons are in the title? It’s honestly kind of crazy.

Anyway, I mentioned in my first post that I’d occasionally be doing pop culture related posts, and since City of Bones is a relatively recent movie and I watched it a couple of weeks ago (yes, I’m aware that I’m several months behind), I decided it counted in the pop culture category and that I wanted to review it. I also added the book on Goodreads few months ago when I originally read it, and you can see that not-very-in-depth review here.

Description is from movie cover: After teen Clary Fray witnesses a murder at a New York nightclub, a sinister stranger named Valentine attacks and kidnaps her mother. Endowed with supernatural vision, Clary recruits a band of youthful human-angel hybrids to help rescue her mother.

My Review: While much of the major plot of the movie was the same as the book, a lot of smaller things were changed, either mashed together or taken out completely, all to make the movie move faster. Admittedly, the movie did do a better job of showing some things - don't want to go into details. Spoilers! - but a lot of it was really confusing because the pacing was so fast. I understand it's a big book and a lot to try to stuff into two hours (took WAY longer than that to read it) but this movie's speed was like insane. I think that, had I not already read the book and understood some of the plot elements, I’d have been very, very confused.

That said, what I did understand was quite interesting. Like the book, the movie was chock-full of action from beginning to end, and I really did enjoy it. I can’t say I was ever bored exactly, but lost? Uh... yeah. Sometimes.

Some of the characterizations, too, weren’t really what I expected. Magnus Bane, for instance, I imagined as a middle-aged, kinda fat, sarcastic, white dude in a golden robe. Imagine my shock when out comes this young, tan, serious, almost-caring guy - who incidentally forgot to put his pants on before he left the bedroom. (In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t think my characterization of Magnus was exactly in the book. It’s just my personal preference, how I imagined him.)

At the same time, I did like most of the characters, and I thought the acting was pretty good. Admittedly, it could've been better at some points, but it wasn't bad by any means. And I really liked the ending, how every single character was important and necessary to defeat the baddies.

Altogether, this was a pretty enjoyable movie, so I’ll give it 4 funny-looking runes out of 5 for fun, mystery, adventure, and kick-butt coolness.

P.S.: There are a couple of specific things I’d like to note: One, there was some cursing. Not a lot and nothing too bad, but still.

Two, some of the outfits were, shall we say... less than sufficient covering? I did like that Clary referred to her dress as a “top” at one point. Which it honestly should've been.

The third thing, though, was something I really liked: Clary didn't always look like a supermodel. Sounds funny I know, but in most movies the hero/heroine can walk away from a fight still looking like the million bucks they got paid to do the film. Not so in City of Bones. Sometimes that girl looked ROUGH, but it just made sense. After you fight demons the first time (or anytime for that matter) you're probably not going walk away looking like the cover of a magazine.

So all-in-all, it was a pretty good film. I’d recommend it for lovers of fantasy and the paranormal over the age of 12.