What an odd specimen this film is. “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” isn’t a good film, not by a long shot. But it isn’t atrocious either.

From a cinematic standpoint, it’s a beautifully shot film. All the sets are fantastic, and establish the scenes well; few times did I find myself confused about what was going on, even if the fighting scenes were quite frantic and confusing. And the films score was also amazing, even breathtaking at times; though it tended to take over the scenes.

So cinematically this film is fine, but when it comes to the story and characters… ooh boy. It feels as if the editor ingested a tub of sugar before putting the film together. One moment the characters are at a club, and then suddenly they are at a coffee shop. There’s no pacing, no easing into the scenes, they just go by with no explanation; I practically got whiplash from sitting through the entirety of this wretched film.

Let’s not forget the characters; the whole time I was in the theatre I couldn’t stop wondering to myself “Why is Clary the protagonist?” She was so uninteresting, whiny and useless that I wanted to punch her every time she would cry or complain for something that was her fault. There was just no effort put into establishing the characters, something essential for a movie to work. Jace and Clary fell “in love” out of nowhere; why would he just fall for here when all she has done is ruin everything? I honestly believed Simon and Isabelle as a more believable couple, and they only shared a few lines between each other. Actually I would have preferred them be the protagonists through the whole film; the few scenes they were away from Clary and Jace were like a breath of fresh air.

From what I’ve heard, many fans of the book have called betrayal on the movie’s story, but I never finished the book and barely remember anything I read. The movies story for the most part wasn’t to bad, but it never took the time to explain itself. Why was the cup a big deal, what were they doing in the city of bones, why are Clary and Jace in love? Sorry I still can’t get over that. My biggest gripe, though, was that the movie couldn’t seem to choose a genre; is it a thriller, a teen drama, a fantasy fiction? “Mortal Instruments” seemed like it was suffering from a loss of identity and was just lost in this limbo, this beautifully horrid limbo.

I expect there will be a sequel, and since I didn’t hate this film too harshly and liked how it looked, I would consider seeing it, but as for “City of Bones,” I would suggest to just glance at the film.