The Mortal Instruments review: The story of a love triangle set in an underworld of demons and vampires is painfully unimaginative

By Chris Tookey

PUBLISHED: 21:32 GMT, 22 August 2013 | UPDATED: 11:47 GMT, 23 August 2013

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones (12A)

Verdict: Very sub-Potter

Rating:

Still the attempts to launch a young adult movie franchise continue...

Heroine Clary (played by Lily Collins, the astoundingly pretty daughter of Phil) hangs out in Brooklyn, with an artist mother (Lena Headey) and mum’s lover, Luke (Aiden Turner).

She also has a platonic boyfriend Simon (Robert Sheehan), who loves Clary more than she realises.

Lily Collins plays Hermoine Clary, who falls for a demon warrior. Predictably, drama ensues

But then Clary falls for mysterious, tall, blond stranger Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), who reveals himself to be a Shadowhunter, an angelic warrior against demons.

Clary discovers that she is one too, as is her mother, and there’s an underworld she knew nothing about, inhabited by demons, angels, vampires and werewolves.

As in Twilight, she is torn between two very different young men.

Fans of the novels will doubtless derive pleasure from seeing the books come to life. The actors are attractive enough to please the core teenage audience.

The film is, however, unlikely to earn many converts.

In an attempt to emulate Harry Potter or the Twilight series, this second rate knock off does itself no favours and looks all the more unimaginative in comparison

Cassandra Clare, author of the best-selling books on which this movie is based, began as a writer of fan fiction inspired by the Harry Potter books, and it shows. 

The characterisation and plot developments are painfully unimaginative.

Like the Percy Jackson movies, this inadequate attempt to emulate the success of Harry Potter will appeal only to existing fans and the very undemanding.

Jamie Campbell-Bower is planning to visit a tattooist to add yet another piece of body art to his well-illustrated frame.

The Bedales-educated 24-year-old — one of the stars of new film The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones — already boasts reminders of many of the projects he has worked on.

'Jamie 4 Lily' doesn't have the same ring now that co-stars Jamie Campbell-Bower and Lily Collins have split up

It’s as well he didn’t mark his time in The Mortal Instruments — hyped as the successor to the Harry Potter and Twilight fantasy franchises — with a tattoo during filming, or he might have been tempted to inscribe the name of his co-star Lily Collins, daughter of drummer Phil.

hey were boyfriend and girlfriend during filming and only broke up while promoting the movie worldwide. Sadly, ‘Jamie 4 Lily’ no longer has quite the same relevance that it once did?… 

That said, the pair (left) seem perfectly at ease with one another as they talk about the ?40?million movie.

Lily, 24, describes him as ‘awesome’. Jamie says she was ‘a brilliant co-star’ and underlines the fact they remain good friends by saying: ‘We are tight: always have been, always will be.’

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, in cinemas this week.

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