This is one of those circumstances where I hate Young Adult fiction movie adaptations. Sure, the movie was good. Entertaining, kept my interest both times (well, the first time it grasped my interest, and the second time today kept it for the most part,) pretty people...MTV stylizations. Not too many special effects, which was nice, because it focused on the story. But the book was definitely much better in my humble opinion. Let's start with that...
The book is the first of a series. If you look in one place, it's a series of just three books, and if you look elsewhere there are more. I'm glad there are more. I'm currently about halfway through the third book. Yes, I started reading them August 28th. Yes, I read the second book in two sittings. Yes, I can't seem to really put the third book down. It's kept me up at night, because I just want to keep reading. I'm having a hard time going on websites to understand some of the things that are difficult to grasp because there are spoilers everywhere. One part of me wants to know...the other part wants to find out as I read for myself. Pretty much, yes...it sucks you in.
The story is simple but also complicated, which is good. A girl from Brooklyn named Clary whose mother is kidnapped and turns her world upside down. She learns of a mysterious hidden world of Shadowhunters (half angel-half human that fight demons) and Downworlders (vampires, werewolves, warlocks, pixies, fairies...zombies don't exist.) Turns out, she's a Shadowhunter herself, and a very powerful one at that. She meets a few others, Isabelle and Alec who are brother and sister (Alec is very annoying in the movie, but much better in the book.) The biggest one is Jace, who of course, she falls in love with...if you like that whole scrawny emo kick ass kind of guy. Problems ensue from there as they run into many situations while trying to find out why her mom was taken...all for the Mortal Cup. I don't want to say much more, because it will give away too much, and this isn't a spoiler sort of blog at all.
The movie follows pretty much the same premise. There were a few things that were different from the book, including well...pretty much the entire second half. It was still good, and it went along with where the book series is taking you, but well...it wasn't the book, and it wasn't AS good. Like I already said...very MTV, and not the good 80s and 90s MTV where there was actual music and it was worth watching. I totally get how it is geared towards teenage girls and blah blah blah, but why can't we have a really great book series that knows that it attracts many different demographic readers, so the movie series that will be based on the book is geared towards many different ones too? Is that really too much to ask of Hollywood?
Either way, here's the trailer for it. It's in theaters currently.
My review on the individual performances? Lily Collins does well as Clary and Jamie Campbell Bower gets the sarcastic and narcissistic points of Jace down pretty well. Lena Headey plays Clary's mother Jocelyn, and I can't help thinking every time I see her that she is what Keira Knightley is going to look like in ten years, but Jocelyn and Clary look similar, so it works. Kevin Zegers plays Alec, who is flat...hopefully that will get better with the next movie as his character develops more. Jemima West is Isabelle, who is a character I don't particularly care for in the first book, but she works it pretty well. Robert Sheehan plays Simon, Clary's best friend, and he totally fits the geeky friend part. Aidan Turner works well as Luke, Jocelyn's friend and a werewolf. And Jonathan Rhys Meyers...well...he totally fits Valentine because he's so ridiculously good at playing these extravagant characters who live in excess and expect to have every order followed. Godfrey Gao plays Magnus, who is probably my favorite character out of the whole series...can't wait to see what comes of him in future movies as the character builds with (literally) Alec and that whole story line.
No matter what your thoughts are, this is definitely a series to check out though. Just please don't only watch the movie and not read the book...because in my opinion, this is one case where the book is definitely better. Here's hoping they can gear the second film in the series better toward the universalness (is that a word?!)
Book: 4.5 stars
Film: 3.5 stars
