The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Information

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.

Plot

Brooklyn teenager Clary Fray goes with her best friend Simon Lewis to a nightclub, and witnesses a murder. Even with Simon by her side, Clary seems to be the only actual witness to the crime. At the club she meets shadowhunter Jace Wayland and is catapulted into a world that has so far been unknown to her. She discovers that her mother, Jocelyn, has been attacked and taken from their home in New York City by a man named Valentine in his search of an object known as the Mortal Cup.

Clary gets in touch with her new friend, Jace, and his adoptive siblings and fellow shadowhunters, Alec and Isabelle Lightwood, to help her on her quest to rescue her mother. Along the way Clary finds out the truth that her mother had wanted to protect her from, about her past and bloodline and how she, like Jace, Alec and Isabelle, is a shadowhunter, which are part angel, part human warriors.

Clary is shocked to learn that her mother is also a shadowhunter and that she too has the powers of one. To remember, Clary goes to the City of Bones and discovers that a warlock named Magnus Bane placed a memory block on her. She, Jace, and the others arrive at Bane's house and are told that Jocelyn asked him to block her memories every year to prevent her from discovering the Shadowhunter world.

Cast

• Lily Collins as Clary Fray
• Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland
• Robert Sheehan as Simon Lewis
• Kevin Zegers as Alec Lightwood
• Lena Headey as Jocelyn Fray
• Kevin Durand as Emil Pangborn
• Aidan Turner as Luke Garroway
• Jemima West as Isabelle Lightwood
• Godfrey Gao as Magnus Bane
• C. C. H. Pounder as Madame Dorothea
• Jared Harris as Hodge Starkweather
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine Morgenstern
• Robert Maillet as Samuel Blackwell
• Stephen R. Hart as Brother Jeremiah
• Elyas M'Barek as Vampire lieutenant
• Chad Connell as Blue-haired demon

Production

Pre-production

While shopping the film prospect around, author Cassandra Clare had difficulty finding a studio interested in making a film with a female in the lead role. Studios asked her to switch the lead to a male character, which she refused.

On December 9, 2010, it was announced that Lily Collins had landed the role of Clary Fray.

Alex Pettyfer was originally offered the role of Jace Wayland, but turned it down. Alexander Ludwig, Ed Speleers, Xavier Samuel, Nico Tortorella, Max Irons, Douglas Booth, and Benjamin Stone all auditioned for the role but lost to Jamie Campbell Bower.

Filming

Principal photography took place between August 20 " November 7, 2012 on location in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and New York City.

Release

A teaser trailer was released in November of 2012, and a second trailer was released March 2013. The film was originally due for general release on August 23, 2013, but was released two days earlier, on August 21, 2013. The film secured broad European distribution deals at Cannes.

The film premiered on August 12, 2013, at the Arclight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

Critical response

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones has received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 13% based on 101 reviews, with an average score of 3.9/10. 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". At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100, the film has a score of 33, based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."

The Telegraphs 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." Venetia Falconer of MTV News gave the film a positive review, with a score of 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."

Audiences responded more positively than critics. Viewers who saw the film on the opening Wednesday, gave average grade of B-plus, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

Marketing

According to the Los Angeles Times, $60 million was spent on marketing.

Kulzer, Constantin's co-president, stated "$60 million has been spent worldwide on prints and advertising...." and went on to explain the importance of managing expectations, saying even if it performs moderately, it would warrant a sequel.

Box office

According to Deadline.com, City of Bones grossed $9.3 million for the 3 day weekend, debuting in #3 place as the highest ranked new release, although losing out on the top two spots to holdovers from previous weeks (Lee Daniels' The Butler and We're The Millers). For the 5-day cumulative total, it grossed $14,051,000, placing it below estimates of Variety at $18 million, The Hollywood Reporter at $15 million, and Sony itself who predicted $15 million. According to The Wrap, the film "failed to connect" and is the same course as other misfires Beautiful Creatures and The Host.

Forbes also made comparisons with Beautiful Creatures and The Host, and called the five-day weekend gross "a full-blown disaster" as well as "the biggest bomb of the weekend".

Music

Sequels

On May 8, 2013, it was announced that a film adaptation of the second book of the The Mortal Instruments series, City of Ashes, will start production on September 23, 2013 with a 2014 release date. Sigourney Weaver is confirmed to join the cast.

Games

To tie-in with the film, Sony Pictures worked with developers PlayFirst to release a game on August 15, 2013. The game, available free for Android and iOS, allows players to hunt demons and supernatural monsters like the Shadowhunters of the story. The includes cross-platform features, allowing users to sign in on Facebook and save their progress across Android and iOS devices.