(She also, unsurprisingly, dabbled in both “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” fan fiction.) Their lopsided love triangle unfolds against a fully loaded landscape of vampires, werewolves, warlocks, angels and demons that less charitable viewers will likely dub “convoluted,” but at least keeps the film from slipping into the languid tedium that defined so much of “Twilight.” Author Cassandra Clare, who created the series, is clearly invested in worldbuilding - she’s published five “Mortal Instruments” installments and three spinoff novels since 2007. Clary enters the Shadow World with the help of her own Edward Cullen, Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), an androgynous would-be heartthrob aptly described at one point as a “dyed blonde wannabe Goth weirdo.” That shade is thrown by Clary’s very own Jacob - here he’s called Simon (Robert Sheehan) and conceived as a nerdy lapdog who harbors an obvious but unspoken crush on Clary. The Bella Swan stand-in here is named Clary Fray (Lily Collins), a seemingly normal girl who is actually part of a long line of “Shadowhunters” - part angel and part human warriors charged with protecting humanity from the demons constantly looking to raise hell on Earth. All the ho-hum familiarity robs the movie of the one element essential for a successful franchise (even “Twilight”): a sense of its own identity. Enter “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” a peppy mix of earnest romance and supernatural shenanigans that attempts to differentiate itself with a more elaborately conceived and populated fantasy world (shades of “Harry Potter”) and a tougher, more self-reliant heroine (shades of “The Hunger Games”).īorrowing from superior franchises gives “Mortal Instruments” a slight edge over recent failed “Twilight” wannabes like “Beautiful Creatures,” “The Host,” “I Am Number Four” and “Red Riding Hood,” but it still comes at a price. “The Twilight Saga” mercifully reached its end last year, but we still haven’t reached the expiration date for shameless imitators looking to pick up where the blood-(and-soul-)sucking franchise left off.
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