In Review: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones"

In Review: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones"

To judge a book by its movie. Years ago, this was not a problem. Now, it is what controls what flies off the shelves and what develops cobwebs.

I think this movie has hurt its book series and its chances for new readers.

The Plot

Clary (Lily Collins) is just your average teenager with a dorky best friend (Robert Sheehan) who is clearly in love with her. All of the sudden (not really- it's a movie, something's gotta happen), she starts seeing people in crazy goth costumes who no one else can see, creepy looking monsters that were rottweilers, and Clary finds out she is a "shadow hunter" aka part-angel-part-human, demon hunter, like Van Helsing, minus the werewolves thing.

Like any good YA book, there is tons of sexual tension between our heroine and the mysterious, brooding, sexy Jace (Jamie Campell Bower). And the best friend looks on sadly.

Somewhere Clary's mom gets captured, she has to find this cup thing that everyone keeps talking about, and she keeps getting into trouble.

The Cast

Lily Collins goes back to the fantasy world from her latest role as Snow White in the wildly unsuccessful "Mirror Mirror" with Julia Roberts. Jamie Campell Bower, who you will recognize from the "Twilight" series as Caius, gets to play a good guy this time around. No one's performance is too horrible or too fantastic. I don't think these actors are to blame for my dislike of this film. The lack of character development and emotional connection has nothing to do with flaws in acting. It has to do with the amount of information required to understand what the heck is going on in this movie.

The Message

Uhhhh.... There was a message? I had no idea with all the shit that was happening.

Overall

This story requires a lot of background information to understand the world. What is a shadow hunter? Who and what do they fight? What is the Institute? What is Clary's mother's back story? How is Clary able to do all this stuff? What are ruins? What are the stick things all the shadow hunters have?

All of these questions and more. Thank God I went with a friend who read all of the series and was able to answer every single question I had about the story and its characters.

There was too much going on in this movie. While watching, I felt like the screenwriting had this list of events and background information that happened in the book that he/she knew he/she had to get in the film, but forget to include character development and character relationships. So by the end of the film, I am super confused and don't really care about these characters.

On top of all of this, the film and book drops a huge bomb on the audience at the end of the film. I mean, HUGE. So much so that I was turned off from every picking up the series. It was just too much to handle for the first movie of what could be a series.

A good first movie of a continuous series is "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." HP1 is a great film to start off a series of films because we get to know the characters, we get to know the world that we will grow to love, we become emotionally invested with these characters, and a little bit of action happens. No bombs are dropped on us. Nothing that will turn us away from wanting to see the next film.

"City of Bones" may be an excellent book and "Mortal Instruments" may be a terrific series, but I don't think "City of Bones" was a good choice for a film. The only people who, I think, will want to see the next movie in the series will be those who read the book before the movie came out. I don't think people who didn't read the books (and yes, ALL of them) before seeing the movie will ever pick up the book or see the next movie. Unless they are dragged to it by their book-reading friends.

I can't imagine what it was like waiting for the second book of this series to come out. Frankly, I am surprised that anyone continued reading. I am too shocked to continue my journey into "Mortal Instruments."

1 out of 4 Mortal Cups

In Review: "Saving Mr. Banks"

In Review: "Saving Mr. Banks"

There are few times when the audience is able to truly understand a filmmaker's mind and heart behind the making of a film. Why does that character look that way? How did they come up with the script and the songs? Why did they make this movie in the first place? Getting inside the head and heart of any artist is extremely difficult. It's like trying to explain why we live and breath on this earth. It is nearly impossible to truly understand, unless you talk directly to the creator.

Being a Disney fanatic means that you can put just about anything in front of me with the Disney name on it, and I will automatically fall in love with it. I will defend it tooth and nail until my very last breath. So many people have tried to get me to think badly of Walt Disney and/or Disney World for this reason or that reason, but I refuse. Disney is more than just a company for me. It's a way of life. It runs through  my very soul.

That being said, I was never a huge Mary Poppins fan. I was born around the Disney golden age full of princesses under the sea and loving hairy beasts. Anything that didn't have a damsel in distress and an attractive, singing love interest was not worth my time. The last time I watched Mary and her magical flying umbrella from beginning to end was probably before I was in high school.

The True Story 

After his blockbuster success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and popular television show "The Wonderful World of Disney", Walt wants to take his daughters' (Diane (RIP as of Nov.) and Sharon) favorite novel, "Mary Poppins", and turn it into a full-length film. After 20 years of trying to get the author P.L. Travers to concede signing over the rights, Mrs. Travers is finally willing to try and work with Walt (mostly because she is flat broke).

The two storytellers must work together to create what we know of today as the part live-action part animated film Mary Poppins. But Mrs. Travers is extremely protective of her work and puts down every idea Walt puts on the table in the snarkiest of British comments. Why is that? Why has Walt been trying for 20 years to make this movie anyway? Why is it still such a beloved film even 60 years later?

The Cast

This is the first time anyone has ever tried to play Walt Disney. As a Disney fan, you can understand my deep concern when I learned they would be having some other person try to put this man's greatness into being. But I do not think they could have chosen a better person than Tom Hanks.

As I was keeping up with all of the gossip of the film before its opening, I watched an interview with Hanks. He talked about how they didn't want to try to replicate Walt. They weren't trying to make Hanks look just like him or sound exactly like him. He knew there was no way anyone could come close to being Walt. So he studied his mannerisms and the way he spoke, but Hanks never tried to be Disney. And that really showed on screen. You felt the heart, imagination, and determination that Disney had in fighting for his films and the Disney name. I cannot say how much Hanks' performance meant to me. I never got to see Walt on TV or read about him in the newspaper. I have only experienced his legacy. But for the first time, I got to see one of my biggest heroes on the silver screen.

I cannot imagine how hard playing P.L. Travers was for Emma Thompson. One interview I watched with Hanks said that after every take she would apologize to everyone for being so mean. But she did it so well! I couldn't help but laugh at the strategic way she delivered every snarky line and scowled at the Sherman Brothers just the right way at their made up words.

It takes a lot of talent to be able to make someone so mean and yet so real. By the end of the film, the audience has done a full 360 and learns to love Mrs. Travers for every quirk she possesses. Being able to get people to hate you and then fall in love with you is quite a feat that only the great Thompson could accomplish.

The Message

We can't just assume things about people. Even though someone may seem like a bitter old woman on the outside or a money-obsessed entrepreneur, everyone has a past. But that doesn't mean that our past, our story, should control us in the present and into the future.

"Around here we don't look backwards for very long... We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
-Walt Disney

People with the most impossible problems are able to succeed in the most brilliant ways. All it takes is faith and trust. And a spoon full of sugar.

Overall

There is nothing bad I can say about this movie. Even if I'm nitpicking to the max, I cannot come up with anything I would have changed. You might blame it on my love of all things Disney, but I think it goes quite deeper than that. I think this film speaks to all people of all ages just as all Disney films do. It speaks to us through the heart and through our inner child. It teaches us a simple but very important life lesson that we as adults tend to forget. Only the best films can speak to everyone. Only the best films make us look at ourselves and our own lives. Only the best films teach us something by the end of the credits.

I expect big awards for this one, and I implore you, even if you don't love Disney and have never seen Mary Poppins, please go see this movie. We all need to remember who we were to discover who we will become. For those who love the original film, let's all go fly a kite.

4 out of 4 Kites