Last night, I took Abbey to see the movie that was highest on her version of a Summer Movie Wishlist. I have read City of Bones and a few of the other books in the series. I enjoyed reading them and was intrigued to see how the movie played out.
From the beginning, Abbey has been following the casting, production and promotion of this film. She's a TMI fangirl and has read all of the books available to date, including a spin-off series. From the first whispers of a film adaptation, she was on pins and needles at just whom would play Clary and Jace. She was sorely disappointed with the casting, yet held out hope for it translate well onto the screen.
While these books are very similar in their appeal as the Twilight series, I just don't think there's the same hysterical fan base to provide support for the equivalent of movie hype as Twilight had. None of our local theatres even provided a midnight showing. But trek out we did, with Rebekah in tow.
To be polite to my daughter, I chose to reserve my comments until after the showing. Let's just say I silently rolled my eyes more than a few times. "Cheesy" might be the best word. Just as Twilight felt flat to me compared to the book, Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, had about as much emotional range as Kristen Stewart's, Bella. But Bella was supposed to be slightly dull and boring (at least in her own mind). Clary and Jace are not. In fact, Jace is written as impulsive, daring and willing to risk/sacrifice all in the name of his call to fight evil. Yeah...this portrayal...not so much. I don't know whether to blame the script, the director or the actor. Maybe it was all three.
The conclusion of the film was about as flat (again, that word kept ringing in my head last night) as you could get. They also pulled elements of subsequent books in the series into this storyline. It really felt as if they were leaving the possibility of a sequel out there...but only half-heartedly. It seemed as if they were hedging their bets. "We'll throw in a couple of teasers, but if the movie tanks...we've told the gist of the story too," seemed to be the modus operandi.
I hate to completely pan a film. There were a few good moments and Jonathan Rhys Myers is pretty good in anything he does. CCH Pounder is a delight wherever she turns up! But to be honest I've yet to be wow-ed by either Collins or Bower in any of their prior films. I do have to add that the score, special effects and set design were pretty good...but they overwhelmed the film and stood out too much compared to the general "flat" emotional portrayals. I do remember thinking that Bower hit his stride about two-thirds of the way into the film...during some of the fight scenes...so I give him the deserved props for that. He's just a little too GQ-runway-model looking for the character though.
Overall, I'd give it a B- or C+ rating. I was entertained, but not engaged. I didn't "lose myself" in it like a great movie will do. Last night, I joked with Rebekah that she only came for the popcorn. She and I share that addiction and I think there are times we look for an excuse to go to a movie simply for the popcorn. So I told her that I should probably change my rating system to a "small bag", "medium bag", "large bag" or "get the jumbo bucket" comparison instead. Just for fun, I'll throw it out there...while this wasn't a total clunker, I'd say it was only worth a "medium bag" of popcorn.
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