Just as an exercise in moviegoing, I deliberately didn't do any advance research on City of Bones - didn't download any of the books, didn't read any reviews, didn't research any of the actors - and as such was able to go to the film with no expectations or background at all. (Which, when you think about it, is a bit of a challenge in this age of trailers, ads, tweets and spoilers.)
As such, I watched the movie entirely on its own merits, and as such I have to give it mixed reviews. More knowledge of the original material might have changed that, but ultimately I think that a movie has to stand on its own.
Unfortunately, I found that subjecting City of Bones to that test didn't necessarily give it a passing mark. Ironically, the additional back story that I avoided looking up probably would have helped. There were a lot of little things that didn't quite add up, things that struck me as clever gimmicks rather than valid plot developments.
To be fair, the acting wasn't bad, and Phil Collins' daughter Lily does an acceptable if not brilliant job in her role as Clary Fray, the artistic girl who finds out that she's actually part of an ancient magical order of half-angel demon-fighters known as Shadowhunters, as were her mother and father before her. Standing on the sidelines during this conflict are the members of the Downworld: vampires, werewolves, witches and warlocks.
I freely admit that I'm not really the target audience for this movie, and as such it may not be fair for me to pass judgement on it. As a man in his fifties, the trials and tribulations of young love are more amusing than gripping; similarly, I'm not certain that the emo-influenced antics of pouting leather-clad youths who cut new magical runes into their arms after dramatic arguments make the best role models for today's teenagers. It's very possible that if I was a member of the (presumably) fifteen-year-old-girl target demographic, I might well have been on the edge of my seat for the whole 130 minutes of the movie.
My real problem, though, was that I found the whole basic concept to be a bit clichéd. It may well be that discovering that you're really a teenage wizard/half-god/angel or that the world is really full of vampires/werewolves/witches/whatevers in hiding has had its day*, and it's time for a new paradigm.
With that on the table, I strongly recommend that interested readers take a look at the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix, most notably Sabriel, the first book of the series.
Death, in the Old Kingdom, is a very real place, a shifting, watery landscape that drags the souls of the departed from Gate to Gate until they reach the ultimate Gate from which there is no return - but until then, some spirits are able to claw their way back from Death and return to the world of life as creatures of dark magic.
Sabriel is the adopted daughter of the Abhorsen, a necromancer who wields the magic of the Charter against these revenants. "Adopted" is a euphemism - Sabriel is also a child of Death, brought back from the first gate as a stillborn infant, and raised to be the successor to the current Abhorsen.
Her story begins when the news reaches her at school in Ancelstierre that her father has died - or at least, entered Death and not returned, the two are not synonymous. She receives his sword and the enchanted bells which are used to control and banish creatures from Death. She returns to the Old Kingdom to attempt to discover how her father died, and whether or not he can be brought back from Death, only to discover that an older, darker power lies behind his passing.
Sabriel offers a well thought out and completely new world to the reader, then takes them through a impressively plotted adventure in that world. I suppose that technically it's a young adult novel, but trust me, even if you're an old adult you'll enjoy Sabriel.
- Sid
* I was going to say "is in its twilight" but we're not going there.
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