The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

[I SEE SPIDEY]

It's a Screen Gems movie starring Phil Colins daughter so I'm guessing the budget isn't that large. Maybe it won't need to be a smash to be successful.

 

[Octoberist]

First Clip. I had NO IDEA Lena Headey was in this.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=107449

 

[Teelie]

I saw the trailer before The Wolverine and it looks mildly interesting but I can't believe they're already talking of doing the sequel before the first movie is out.

 

[Silvermoon]

I've read the first three books (haven't gotten around to Fallen Angels or Lost Souls yet) they were okay...but not my favorite YA novels. I'll probably go see this in the theaters though, for Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine if nothing else.

 

[Jordacar]

So this movie's out! Yay?

I liked it. Even though I haven't read the books at all, I half expected to point at the screen every five minutes and say "No movie, you're doing that wrong." Instead, I more often thought, "I like your style, movie!"

 

[Silvermoon]

My mom, my older sister and I saw it yesterday morning. It wasn't nearly as bad as I was fearing (I was expecting that it would be much like the Twilight movies in the sense that we spend the time laughing at things that you're not really meant to laugh at... which didn't really happen). The teenage characters were actually pretty good (the casting of Jace didn't bother me nearly as much as it bothered my sister), and on the whole, I was entertained. I do think the pacing near the end could've been tweaked a bit somehow, it got to a point where I was tempted to look at my phone to see what time it was, if a movie is doing it's job properly I never have that urge.

Johnny Rhys Meyers' Valentine, as I expected, I enjoyed... towards the end when he was being quite the rat bastard and getting in everyone's face/trying to manipulate them he actually reminded me of his portrayal of Steerpike in the Gormenghast mini-series.

Lily Collins was good, and at points in the film I found myself trying to picture her in roles Kristen Stewart has had and wondering if she could've made those films more tollerable/better (i.e. Bella in Twilight, Snow White in SW & the Huntsman).

All in all, I'd probably give this a 6 or 7/10 - not perfect and probably won't see it in the theaters a 2nd time, but entertaining and will purchase it on home video

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Lily Collins has already been Snow White.

 

[Silvermoon]

Lily Collins has already been Snow White.

I know that, I just meant if she had taken the OTHER Snow White instead of the one she did, would it have made SWatH a better film?

 

[TheDreamMaster]

This movie was 5 or 6 for me. I just wasn't really interested in what was going on. It wasn't a Twilight clone like I feared though, and it ended up better than I thought., Still, kind of meh for me, and part of that is because I'm done with vampires and were wolves for a while. There's still stuff related to those I like, but they've become pretty oversaturated.

 

[Octoberist]

I think the problem with the film was that, it didn't come off as a genuine adaptation. Instead it came off as a cheap cash-in for the Young Adult crowd. It stunk of it.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

I think the problem with the film was that, it didn't come off as a genuine adaptation. Instead it came off as a cheap cash-in for the Young Adult crowd. It stunk of it.

This I agree with. Kind of reminds me of how Percy Jackson feels to me against Harry Potter or Clash of the Titans(closest actual film to the series.). Its not bad per se, but it feels like it could have been done a lot better.

 

[TheVileOne]

I wonder if Divergent will suffer a similar fate.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I wonder if Divergent will suffer a similar fate.

Summit should definitely be worried. They are going to have to go out of their way to convince people that Divergent is not The Hunger Games 1.0.

 

[Octoberist]

I think Divergent has a bigger fanbase than 'City of Bones' which started off as fan-fic anyway.

Also, the talent behind Divergent is better plus like what 'I see Spidey' said, it looks like a movie and not a CW pilot.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I think Divergent has a bigger fanbase than 'City of Bones' which started off as fan-fic anyway.

Also, the talent behind Divergent is better plus like what 'I see Spidey' said, it looks like a movie and not a CW pilot.

Oh because of the good release date, the sleek look of the film and the cast I definitely think that it will open much, much better than The Host, Beautiful Creatures and The Mortal Instruments but will it do well enough to start a franchise? That is what I'm unsure of.

EDIT: By much, much better I mean at least something in the early 30's for the 3 day. Expecting Hunger Games numbers would be silly but I have no doubt that Summit is looking for the first Twilight style numbers. We will see if they get them. It has the best chance out of all of these young adult novels because I read that the book is actually doing well.

 

[Octoberist]

Yeah..it's hard to say. I know it's not frachises per say, but it's one of those cases where studios will never 'get it'. Sure you can have 100 movies like 'Two Days in the Valley', but you'll always have one 'Pulp Fiction'. Maybe 'Divergent' can be successful and different enough to be like its own 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels/Snatch'.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Yeah..it's hard to say. I know it's not frachises per say, but it's one of those cases where studios will never 'get it'. Sure you can have 100 movies like 'Two Days in the Valley', but you'll always have one 'Pulp Fiction'. Maybe 'Divergent' can be successful and different enough to be like its own 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels/Snatch'.

Ha, Cute analogy. You never know what studios think is successful or how much they really spent but with the way things are going I think Summit/Lions Gate should be happy if the movie cracks 120mil in the states. It has an 80 million dollar budget so it does have to do somewhat well.

 

[Project862006]

i thought mortal instruments have a huge fan base i never hear dof divergent i heard of mortal instruments constantly

kind of shock it bombed

 

[Thundercrack85]

Better or worse than Percy Jackson?

 

[Thundercrack85]

i thought mortal instruments have a huge fan base i never hear dof divergent i heard of mortal instruments constantly

kind of shock it bombed

I bet there's a team of about a hundred scientists trying to figure out why this failed while Twilight broke every box office record.

 

[Project862006]

problem with films like TMI,The Host,Beautiful Creatures,and even Divergent is they look bland they are not bringing anything new to differentiate it

twilight was the 1st and then hunger games was so different than twilight that it stood out

 

[dark_b]

i agree. they look like copy/paste. if you make a movie so similar to other omvies than at least spend 150 millions with tons of action and hot actors.

 

[Project862006]

kinda reminds me of that 2003 - 2009 period of fatansy movies trying to be the next harry potter from percy jackson,eragon,spiderwick chronicles,the seeker,golden compass,etc. all of them failed except narnia

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I bet there's a team of about a hundred scientists trying to figure out why this failed while Twilight broke every box office record.

You don't need a team of scientists when the answer is simple. Twilight has a more fanatic fanbase, sold millions upon millions more copies than Mortal Instruments and had a plum November release date. The first film didn't break records although it did have a terrific 69.7mil opening on a 37mil budget.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

kinda reminds me of that 2003 - 2009 period of fatansy movies trying to be the next harry potter from percy jackson,eragon,spiderwick chronicles,the seeker,golden compass,etc. all of them failed except narnia

And even then Narnia didn't keep up that steam at all.

So I just found out the author of this series is a popular fan fiction writer as well. So did this start as another 50 Shades of Grey thing?