Directed by Harald Zwart
Produced by Don Carmody
Robert Kulzer
Screenplay by Jessica Postigo Paquette
Based on City of Bones
by Cassandra Clare
Starring Lily Collins
Jamie Campbell Bower
Robert Sheehan
Kevin Zegers
Lena Headey
Kevin Durand
Studio Constantin Film
Distributed by Screen Gems (US)
C. C. H. Pounder
Jared Harris
Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Music by Atli Örvarsson
Cinematography Geir Hartly Andreassen
Editing by Michael Kahn
Country United States
Germany
Entertainment One (UK)
Release date(s)
Aidan Turner
Jemima West
Godfrey Gao
August 21, 2013 (US, Canada, UK)
Running time 130 minutes
Language English
Budget $60 million
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a 2013 American-German action adventure fantasy film based on the first book of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. The story takes place in an urban and contemporary New York City. Directed by Harald Zwart, the film stars Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Kevin Zegers, Jemima West, Godfrey Gao, Lena Headey, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Aidan Turner, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Durand, and Jared Harris. It was released in theaters on August 21, 2013.
Critical reception
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones has received largely negative reviews from critics, as it currently holds a 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 89 reviews, with an average score of 4.0/10. The site commented that "Bogged down by narrative clutter and tween-targeted supernatural romance, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones borrows ingredients from seemingly every fantasy franchise of the last 30 years -- but can't seem to figure out what to do with them". On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 32, based on 24 collected reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews.
The Telegraph's Robbie Collin gave the film 1 star (out of 5) rating, the critic said: "This gothic teen fantasy is one of the most disastrous page-to-screen adaptations in memory". Collin added "the plot is an incomprehensible tangle of dead ends and recaps, and afterwards you realise only two things have stuck: the story’s countless unsubtle borrowings from very recent pop culture... and a brief aside in which we learn one of the earliest demon-hunters was Johann Sebastian Bach. The Hollywood Reporter also gave it a negative review, Michael Rechtshaffen felt "Certainly not the first and very unlikely the last studio attempt at launching a Twilight/Hunger Games franchise of their very own, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a bona fide saga all right -- just not in a good way" adding "Despite the overstuffed assortment of vampires, werewolves, warlocks and demons of all shapes and sizes, The Mortal Instruments seldom feels like anything more than a shameless, soulless knockoff. New York Daily News also gave it a negative rating of 1 star out of 5; critic Jordan Hoffman felt "This one is by far the worst of the Twilight copies. And when that bunch includes The Host' and I Am Number Four, that’s saying something." adding also "Despite an avalanche of back story, the film is merely an excuse to hop from one spookily dressed set to another. Alas, the titular City of Bones is more of a basement. Other than a gag about a cache of weapons beneath every church altar, there’s hardly a moment of levity or imagination. For a film that is wall-to-wall fantasy, you've seen all of this before, in much better movies. The Seattle Times also gave it a negative review, Tom Keogh felt "City of Bones is so overwhelmed by CGI effects that it amounts to white noise for the eyes. Far worse is the way director Harald Zwart can’t establish a mature tone to support some of the story’s genuinely bold and challenging elements, especially a forbidden-love theme that deserves a more serious context
A more average review came from The Washington Post; film critic Stephanie Merry felt "To be fair, there are elements worth celebrating. The film is thankfully less self-serious than the mopey Twilight films. The Mortal Instruments revels in its own camp." Then she added "But there is plenty of room for improvement. The action flick is overly long, complicated and, even by teen romance standards, cringe-worthy in its cheesiness. ABC News also gave the film and average review of two-and-a-half out of five stars. David Blaustein felt "Director Harald Zwart unsuccessfully tries to compress teen angst, love, passion, unfulfilled dreams and action into an overzealous, over-the-top, never-ending finale which seems about as well planned as throwing rocks and sand into a blender in the hope that if you blend it long enough at high-enough speed, you might wind up with a delicious milkshake." then he finally added: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is not a very good film by any stretch of the imagination. However, it does possess a slick, beautiful, young-adult aesthetic and a supernatural, emotional yet nonsensical love triangle that the film’s target demographic goes crazy for.
However, the film also received a positive review from MTV UK, who gave 4 out of 5 stars "The Mortal Instruments more than lives up to its hype of ‘The New Twilight’. The special effects are impressive, the battle scenes enthralling and there is solid acting from all members of the cast. The film's main strength is that it perfectly hits the right balance between drama and comedy.