On the way to the screening of The Mortal Instruments I realised I was about to watch a film I knew next to nothing about. Apart from a cursory glance at its wikipedia page I didn't know the first thing about the film or the set of novels it was based on (the wikipedia page had to inform me about it being based on a novel). I normally like to rely on reviews to weed out the huge amount of terrible films and prefer to spend my money on something I feel has a decent chance of being at least mildly interesting. Sitting through the 2 hours plus of Lily Cooper's stomach churning journey through a love triangle and Jonathan Rhys Meyers growling constantly made me even more steadfast in my propensity to check rottentomatoes.com before stepping inside the cinema doors.
Now I should say straight away that The Mortal Instruments is a film firmly rooted in the 'teen flick' genre and so it's not a film I would ever choose to see or ever expect to enjoy. There is a scene in the middle of the movie that climaxes (not literally, it's PG-13 after all) with two characters kissing as sprinklers inexplicably shower them with rain and a gushing pop song explodes into life. It was excruciatingly cliched and to my surprise it was perhaps a step too far for some of the teenage fans beside me as the scene drew many giggles and groans.
As far as plot goes, Lilly Collins plays Clary a young girl who begins to realise she is not like everybody else (a classic teen flick trope). She befriends Jace ( Jamie Campbell Bower) through their unique ability to see things normal human beings cannot. Humans like you and me incidentally, are referred to as 'mundanes' which I for one found a touch offensive. Regardless of that, the film sees Clary and Jace team up with other 'Shadowhunters' to fight off those wretched 'Downworlders.' It's your basic good vs evil story with a rather Grecian drama take on familial relations thrown in for some comic relief.
Like almost every film at the moment, especially this Summer it seems, there are a huge amount of action sequences. The battle royal between the vampires and the shadowhunters was particularly visually impressive and reminded me of playing one of the Call of Duty games on zombie mode.
Overall I was left non plussed by virtually all of the performances with the possible exception of Robert Sheehan who turned in a pleasingly comedic role as Clary's 'mundane' friend Simon. There were also some nice deadpan moments from Jamie Campbell Bower and the dynamic between the 3 leads worked quite well.
The film is another in a long line of fantasy orientated teen dramas. The camera work, CGI and performances were all at the level one would expect from a film with a $60 million budget but overall 'The Mortal Instruments' is exactly what you think it's going to be, sentimental, action filled, and really rather dull.
4/10
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