Having read the books, I was expecting the movie to be like Twilight--slow and boring. However, I was wrong. 1. Lily Collins had to go through many disgusting and harrowing escapes as Clary. Soaking wet, wearing torn clothes and braving burns, she is the ultimate hero, seeing as how she cleverly used fire to burn a demon in the first scene. 2. Jace is surprisingly more handsome in film than in pictures. The way he movie is very graceful, something like Edward Cullen couldn't show. 3. The CGI werewolves are much better. Cringing at Twilight werewolves. 4. Of course, the clever cameras. For example, the first scene where they purposely don't show Clary's face to make us curious. 5. It is action-packed. And intense. Never a boring moment. 6. Although not much is explained about the Clave, this feels like a "Harry Potter" movie whereby only the main characters are any good and the others don't believe them. 7. While Valentine looks too young to be Clary's father, he is very good at oscillating between a loving father and a monster. All in all, just watch this film, you will be pleasantly surprised. Not to mention Clary is much prettier than Bella too.
