The Mortal Instruments City of Bones Movie Review & My Experience (Spoiler-y!)

Hello, everyone! Long time, no see! So, this past Wednesday, I went to see the Mortal Instruments City of Bones movie at my local theater, and OMG the emotions that I went through! I'm going to cover everything. From my feelings about how the theaters handled the rush of Shadowhunters to their doors to what I wore to what I felt about the movie. With all that explained, let's get started. My mania started about the Sunday before the movie came out. I proceeded to call every theater within a seventy mile radius to see if they were doing a midnight premiere. What really ticked me off about  the situation wasn't that the theaters weren't doing a midnight release (well, that part did tick me off, but not as much as this), it was the fact that they had no idea if they were doing a midnight release two days before the movie came out. The theaters that I called took forever to get a hold of, and when I did get hold of them, they had no clue as to what I was talking about. It was like the Hot Topic fiasco all over again. I did manage to snag a ticket for Wednesday at ten, but by then, I was pretty perturbed about the entire situation.  I decided that I was going to cosplay in my Isabelle outfit Wednesday night, since I wouldn't have another chance to do it for the movie anyway. I wore my Hot Topic Isabelle dress in ivory, my Hot Topic snake cuff, my Hot Topic ruby pendent, three silver rings, black over the knee leather boots, and my Jace stele from (you guessed it) Hot Topic. I didn't take any pictures like an idiot, but I have to say that I looked amazing. Now, let's get into what you all have been waiting for, my movie review.

So, I have to admit that I had so many butterflies when the opening credits started to roll. The movie looked so beautiful, and you can really see it in the first few moment of the film. I would love to take you scene by scene of what I felt, but that would be a little ridiculous. So, I'll start off with the bad (yes, some of it was bad) and finish if off with the good. First off, I don't understand why there was so little dialogue in the movie. It felt like a bunch of action sequences squished together with not enough dialogue to explain everything. Some of the more important dialogue went so fast that most of the audience couldn't catch it. The next thing is probably a me thing: Jace's pointing. He would just point for an unnecessary long periods of time for no reason, and once I noticed it, I couldn't stop noticing it. The next this was that darn theme music for the Mortal Cup. Whenever that cup appeared, this ridiculously loud music would overpower the moment, and it ended up looking and sounding ridiculous. Another thing is the portal nonsense. Suddenly, you can just take pieces of portal and make it float around like blubber (90s kid reference). Then you can make your hand float detached from your body and stroke someone's hair (SPOILER!!!). I cannot tell you how much that bothered me. Also, Valentine's hair in the last fight scene bothered me. Why would he grow two tiny braids out of his hair? And why does blowing up a portal make it snow?! One thing that really ticked me off was Clary rune making ability. I can understand it coming to light in the first movie, but why does she suddenly have telekinesis? I will get over it though, I suppose. There were also some acting choices that I didn't particularly agree with (Magnus, I missed you being sassy), but that's neither here nor there. I did enjoy pant-less Magnus though.... Anyway!

For the good things, there's a surprising amount. Jemima West as Isabelle Lightwood killed it, in the best possible way! While she didn't say a lot, she did it well. I was really impressed by her. Also, any whip action she had was amazing. In one scene, she whips it up into the air, and you don't know what she's doing. Then she brings down a chandelier, like the best female Shadowhunter of this generation. On that note, I was very happy with the CGI effects used in the movie. This is the type of movie that could easily be CGI heavy, but this movie spaced it appropriately and made it look believable. I loved the party at Magnus's place. It had one of my favorite lines from the book. I have to say that they added a lot of the witty one-liners from the books (mostly Jace's) into the movie, which made me so happy. Speaking of the book, for the most part, they stayed pretty true to the book. Other than the stuff I mentioned above, the things that they changed from the book still had the spirit of the book. They've also hinted to some stuff for the next movie, which could only make me more excited.

There is still a lot that I would like to say about this movie, but then this blog post would turn into a novel based on the movie that's based on the book (and that's a mouthful). Let me sum it up, this movie will make you feel a variety of emotions if you love the books or have never even heard of Shadowhunters and Downworlders. Some of things that they change will make you mad or laugh, the things they've kept will delight and surprise you, and I can tell you that you will be fully entertained if you go see this movie out in theaters. While I'm limited by my budget and will not be seeing this again until it comes out to DVD (unless I can convince others to take me), I would definitely recommend you seeing this movie and then see it again. You will see things that you didn't before, and it makes me sad that I don't know what I've missed. Just keep an open mind about it, and have fun fellow Shadowhunters. Also if you're wondering how they handled the whole incest thing... I won't be telling you. :)