This teen supernatural fantasy action movie involves a young girl in NYC discovering she is a shadow hunter. I know the film has to bring the novel to life so it's unfair to criticize it for the weak plot, but that is the major weakness. It's a 2 hour long mixture of Twilight, Harry Potter and other fantasy novels but the end result is a jumbled mess with too many characters. After a while I gave up figuring out who was fighting who and why. Werewolf against demon, father against son and daughter... whatever. There are some current teen movie tokens (token nerd, token gay, token Asian) and a buffet of monsters (vampires, demons, witches, werewolves, shadow hunters etc) thrown in together. Topping all that is an icky incestuous thing. At least Twilight had a proper story and well drawn characters.
Casting is more hit than miss. Lily Collins as Clary is probably one of the most beautiful young actresses and the movie feels like a photo shoot of her with lots of closeups of her face. Her mother is played by Lena Headey and she is well chosen cause they look like they could be mother and daughter. Good to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers again on the big screen and his presence elevates the standard. Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace has a weird looking enough face to be a supernatural creature but he is a bit emaciated looking and maybe not quite leading actor material. Jemima West as Isabel is a bit forgettable. Kevin Zegers plays a gay shadow hunter. Godfrey Gao as a warlock was a bit soft spoken.
On the plus side, the Gothic looking sets for the institution are quite elaborate and production values are good. Would have liked more scenes in familiar parts of NYC.
If you lower your standards when it comes to plot and just want to see a lot of fantasy action headed by a very appealing lead actress, then you will probably have a good time.
Casting is more hit than miss. Lily Collins as Clary is probably one of the most beautiful young actresses and the movie feels like a photo shoot of her with lots of closeups of her face. Her mother is played by Lena Headey and she is well chosen cause they look like they could be mother and daughter. Good to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers again on the big screen and his presence elevates the standard. Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace has a weird looking enough face to be a supernatural creature but he is a bit emaciated looking and maybe not quite leading actor material. Jemima West as Isabel is a bit forgettable. Kevin Zegers plays a gay shadow hunter. Godfrey Gao as a warlock was a bit soft spoken.
On the plus side, the Gothic looking sets for the institution are quite elaborate and production values are good. Would have liked more scenes in familiar parts of NYC.
If you lower your standards when it comes to plot and just want to see a lot of fantasy action headed by a very appealing lead actress, then you will probably have a good time.