Cast: Lily
Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Lena Headey, Kevin
Durand, Aidan Turner, Godfrey Gao; Direction:
Harald Zwart; Story: based on Cassandra
Clare’s novels; Screenplay: Jessica
Postigo Paquette; Cinematography: Geir Hartly Andreassen; Editing:
Michael Kahn; Music: Atli Orvarsson;
Producers: Don Carmody, Robert
Kutzer; Genre: Fantasy-Adventure-
Teen Romance; Running Time:130
minutes Location: New York, USA; Distributor:
Sony Pictures
Technical assessment: 3
Moral assessment: 2.5
MTRCB Rating: PG13
CINEMA Rating: V18
Jocelyn (Headey) and husband Luke (Turner) seem
to be a normal couple trying to raise a stubborn teenage daughter Clary Fray
(Collins). But when Clary becomes unconsciously obsessed with a certain rune,
Jocelyn becomes alarmed and realizes their family secret is about to be
discovered. On the same night, Clary takes nerdy best friend Simon (Sheehan) to
a night club where she witnesses three Goth teenagers murdering one of the
guests. The following day, she sees Jace (Bower), one of the Goth murderers,
outside a café while she talks with Simon. She decides to confront the stalker
and simultaneously receives a distressing call from her mother being attacked and
asking her not to come home. Clary ignores her mother’s instructions and rushes
home. She finds their house in disarray and her mother missing. A demon-mutant
dog attacks her but fortunately Jace arrives and saves her from being torn into
pieces. Clary and Simon are taken by Jace to an abandoned church in the middle
of New York. They learn that Jace is a Shadowhunter—a half-human, half-angel
warrior trained to hunt demons—and Clary, like her mother, is one as well.
Apparently Clary’s memory and powers were blocked when she was a child to
protect her from Valentine, a rebel Shadowhunter who wanted to create a
stronger breed of warriors to rule to world. She learns that her mother ran
away from Valentine and has hidden the Mortal Cup to thwart his plans. Now it
is up to Clary to discover her true self, retrieve the missing Mortal Cup, save
her mother, and stop Valentine.
The movie adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s best
seller dismally fails to capitalize on another teenage fantasy romance. Audiences who are not familiar with the
book will not be able to keep up with the many sub-plots and foreshadowing.
Neither the storyline nor the different characters were clearly explained nor given
proper resolutions. For example, it is not clear where a Shadowhunter is
immortal or not, and, who is Magnus Bane? While the battle sequences are
action-packed and stimulating they are not enough to resuscitate the movie from
the narrative’s dull development and predictable screenplay. The actors may
have been physically perfect for the part but are just deadweight in their
thespic interpretations. Collins gives a monotonous performance, Bower has the
same deadpan expression all throughout and Meyers is simply unbelievable in his
evil quest. The premise by itself is promising with a darker storyline and
richer context but director Zwart failed to successfully translate the book
into film. Even the romance part is unsuccessful and makes even the love struck
target market cringe in its cheesiness.
Mortal instruments tackles the same coming of age
discovery that he/she is meant to do something unequivocally important for
humanity and lead the ultimate battle between good and evil. It could be
said that with people working together and setting aside differences, good will
always triumph. However, the movie has some disturbing subplots. For instance,
there are undertones of homosexuality in reference to Alec and Magnus. While
the homosexual relationship between the two will still be developed in the
sequel, parents might not be too happy with protagonist heroes openly engaging
in homosexual relationships. Secondly, and more central to the main storyline
is the forbidden romance between siblings Clary and Jace. Interestingly, MTRCB
issued an advisory against violent fight scenes which were actually tolerable
and non-graphic but failed to note the abovementioned issues.
