Shadowhunters Discussion || Pt. 2: The Movie

Part Two:

The Movie

Simon: You killed two cops!
Jace: They weren't cops!
*banters about it for the next ten minutes*

-Simon & Jace, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie (2013)

The following discussion contains spoilers. You've been warned.

From left to right: Lily Collins as Clary Fray, Robert Sheehan as Simon Lewis, Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland, Kevin Zeger as Alec Lightwood, Jemima West as Isabelle Lightwood. (From: Moviepilot)

Today is day 2 of the Shadowhunters discussion, and we are going to talk about the movie that showed during 2013.  Yesterday, I discussed the book and if you want to see that before diving into this, you can click here. For this post, I will not go on and on about how it was not loyal to the source material (a.k.a. book), because it is just a movie adaptation. These kinds of things do not necessarily have to be extremely accurate to the original story. The movie is based on the book, and it is not the book. In my opinion, movie adaptations are all right just as long as they can still make a good story. Yes, I am looking at you Percy Jackson movies. Anyway, I just watched the film again last night and I have a lot to say about it.

When I heard that this movie was going to happen, I had my reservations. Then the casting news came, and all I could do was nod. And then the production designs were teased, my eyes gleamed for a moment. Finally, the trailer and pictures came, and I became even more excited. The movie looked aesthetically good so I couldn’t wait to see it in theaters. And guess what? I did, and did I like it? Well…

Now the camerawork is just decent. I like the editing for the fight scenes; everything was clear and not so quick. Everything looks really gorgeous, and there were some decent shots even though it sometimes looked like a tourism promotional ad for New York. As for the production design, the places looked good. My favorite would be the Hotel Dumort design, because it looked old, creepy, and dark. Having magical elements incorporated into a very urban setting such as New York would certainly look attractive, if you have the right budget and resources. However, I did not like the rune designs in this movie. When it is freshly put on, it is reddening against the skin and it looks almost real. But when it dries up, it turns black looking like you used body paint. I just thought that part looked inconsistent. 

The dialogue and casting choices, however, is a bit questionable. I actually liked the casting for Jace. Jamie Bower is a great actor, and he understood the character very well. In most of the scenes, I was like, “Yes. That is Jace Wayland.” One thing they changed was how Jace reacted to the plot twist of him being related to Clary and Valentine. I liked how he reacted to that and how abhorred he was about it. That was the very thing I was looking for when I reread the book. As for Clary, she is portrayed in a slightly different way. I can tell the writers of the script toned down her annoying traits a bit and made her look more like a victim in this movie. And this suited Lily Collins a lot, because she knew how to play that part very well (based on her previous movies).  Also, I know that Lily Collins was still not a very mature actress at the time, but I am so bothered by the duck-face expression she wore in this movie. I was only thirty minutes into the movie, and her facial expressions still did not change. I had this powerful urge close her mouth. Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s talented and I think she’s pretty. Her take on Clary is just okay. I am slightly irked by the dry humorous dialogue that she tries to deliver. Some of the time, she would say the most random things like, “Is this the part where you rip your shirt and clean my wounds?”  or “Go on, put your head out of the window and stick your tongue out.” I get that it is trying to pay homage to Clary’s sarcastic humor in the books, but it just did not work with this film. Making her say jokes like that out of nowhere seemed very inappropriate and out of place.

Another good performance was Robert Sheehan; I thought he made a really good Simon and he even looked the part. I also like Godfrey Gao’s take on Magnus Bane, and I thought no one would top his performance until Harry Shum Jr. proved me wrong.  Kevin Zeger did only okay as Alec, because he didn’t really do much except be mad all at the time. He also delivered another out of place line when he brushed past Clary the first time they met. He whispered, “Stay away from Jace” while passing by her and it made Clary a bit confused. That part made me laugh because it was out of the blue and it didn’t really fit the scene. Unfortunately, Jemima West’s Izzy was kinda stale. Izzy was slightly more interesting in the books. The best way I can describe the movie version of Isabelle, is that if you remove her from the movie entirely, then nothing much will happen. Sure, she walks around the institute doing stuff but she lacked substance. It’s like the writers just decided to include her into the cast simply because having a badass Shadowhunter lady will strengthen the movie’s appeal. Take out all those scenes, where she walks around doing stuff, and you will realize that she really doesn’t do much.

Finally, there was Valentine. I think he was the biggest letdown of the entire story. And this is not because of the actor, but on the script itself. The movie did not talk about him that much. The writers forgot to make him look menacing, so when he entered the scene it looked like he was being shoehorned. Now, the guy who played him was Jonathan Rys Meyer and I think he did a really good job playing the part. But his presence was less impactful because they only had one scene where they get to talk about him, and whenever his name is mentioned nobody really reacted. Nobody really cared about Valentine in this movie, really. In general, there was not much build-up for Valentine’s character.

teen.com

I think this movie could have been good, but the biggest part of the filmmaking process just faltered; and that is the script. I am not exactly an expert in movie-making but I think the script was the one with the most problems. I am not saying that it is not accurate to the books, but I think it failed to establish a really good story. The dialogue can be dry sometimes, especially when it attempts to be funny. The tone was not consistent throughout the entire movie. And yes, I am talking about the greenhouse scene. I am telling you, this chapter should not have been written because this very scene in the book is so out of place and it totally breaks the eerie momentum that this story was going for. This movie had a horror element attached to it from the very beginning, which I absolutely did not mind. The usual things happen; Clary witnesses a murder, her mom goes missing, she saves Simon from the vampires, nothing much deviates from the book. The first half was actually really good, because I like how Clary was just so scared for her life. The tone was essentially very eerie and I was totally on board. But when the movie reaches the greenhouse scene, where Jace and Clary supposedly make out…everything changes. When you watch this, you forget that this girl was still having a horrifying mission to save her mother. The music no longer becomes classic and dark, but pop and vibrant. When they kissed, water sprinklers come in and it almost looks like your average chick flick. After that magical moment, the movie continues. It’s like this greenhouse scene was like a commercial break from the actual plot. See? This scene was not necessary.

This movie’s soundtrack tends to make some scenes worse. I didn’t like particularly the pop aspects of this, because they didn’t fit with the film so well. But I did like the pop and techno music used for the Hotel Dumort scene. It almost felt like watching a Silent Hill game, and I thought that the shaky cam aspect was on point. I guess you can say that the vampire fight was my favorite. This scene was able to define what this movie is all about. Fighting the supernatural and for justice.

www.ihavenet.com

Since I read the books, I could immediately tell that the story was setting itself up for a sequel. First thing they did was to give Clary another ability. In the second half of the movie, we discover that Clary can put any object through pictures and drawings. This is not an alien concept for the fans, because this really happened in the book. But once you reach twenty minutes before the end, Clary earns a new ability. She can create her own runes. That part could have been very confusing for people who have not read the books. One, this scene was slow but sudden. You eventually question how Clary learned how to make her rune. Also, the explanation of the runes was very brief. The movie decided not to give that much room for the Shadowhunter culture, and that should’ve been in the script especially if they intended to make a sequel. It was only able to explain what a Shadowhunter was and what they could do. They didn’t touch on the Clave, or the book for runes, or even the Accords. So when they are being mentioned in the movie, it is just a big question mark. All this movie was able to show in two hours, was the romance and the quest for the Mortal Cup. In other words, they were almost accurate to the source material. But this movie lacked world-building, it didn’t make the audience aware that there was a universe behind this supernatural story. And I think this is what they lacked, in case they really intended to make a sequel.

I think this movie looked great, it just needed a stronger script that didn't become so focused on creating a sequel. Although Clare was very much involved in the writing process, this goes to show that book plots may not always fit within an hours' length of a film. In other words, this movie is similar to the saying that "Words and ideas usually sound better in our minds." Clary's dry humor seemed to work in the book, but it didn't do as much as for the movie. With that being said, I think this film is something you can watch under a bed weather when you are extremely bored. I conclude the movie discussion, and tomorrow will be the very last. You guessed it; I will be talking about the television series, shown on Freeform. It will also include my finale discussion and everything else. Till the next post~

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