Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (4 Stars)

I didn't intend to see this film in the cinema, but I changed my mind at the last minute and joined the others from the Birmingham Film Club. I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn't call it a great film, but it was definitely worth watching. The buildup and the character development in the first half was incredible, and even though the action scenes were weaker I still enjoyed it.

It's based on the first of a series of six best-selling novels written by Cassandra Clare. Even to someone as naive as me it's obvious what's been going on in the boardrooms of the film studios. "Look at all the money Harry Potter made us. We need a new Harry Potter. Is there anyone here who reads books? Do you have any suggestions what we can film next?"

"Mortal Instruments" (the film) isn't a new Harry Potter, neither in essence nor in style. It isn't even a new Twilight. But it is a good film about a teenage girl caught up in a hidden supernatural world. Clary Fray (15 in the book, but her age is unspecified in the film) witnesses a murder in a nightclub. After this her mother is kidnapped, and the apparent murderer becomes her friend. He tells her that her mother used to be a Shadowhunter, someone who hunts demons.

I can't help feeling that a story like this with an excess of minor characters would work better as a TV series than as a film. With the right executive producer it could become the new Buffy. But I'm still looking forward to the second film in the series.