I don't even know where to start. As an avid reader of the entire mortal instruments series, the film has left me at a loss for words, if anyone so much as brings up the film I can't help but let out a wail of disgust and deep upset over the entire thing.
Why isn't Valentine blonde?! This is such a small detail, but since when is Valentine Morgenstern a brunette with braids? It's a damn important small detail, because Jace and Sebastian are blonde. Clary rubs some of 'Sebastian's hair dye off when they kiss. Why couldn't they have just made him bleach his weird ass braids? And why was it insinuated that Hodge came up with the idea to pretend they are brother and sister?
Part of the entire thrill of the books is genuinely believing they are brother and sister, and the director clearly felt the need to dumb it down. I remember part of the reason I went on to read the rest of the series was because I wanted to know how it panned out.
What is this portal weirdness? Madame Dorothea has a portal, not the institute. Not to mention all this crap about training their whole lives to use it. The film cheapened to book to a level in which I found it hard to watch, with the dramatics score and awful pop music.
Don't get me a wrong, I am a lover of Demi Lovato, but in the greenhouse scene? Really? I adore that scene in the book, Jace opens up in a subtle way and shows he's willing to let her in. In the film he just starts spilling all his secrets, and then loud pop music starts to play and it was unbearable for me to watch. And then to top it off the bloody sprinklers go off, really? Seriously?
On the same topic, who ever came up with the dramatic slo-mo falling scene at the vampire hotel should be shot. It was awful, and then they just lay there for a while. It seems like the directors plan was trying to make everything glaringly obvious, when subtlety is the key to Jace and Clary's relationship. Stop cheapening their beautiful and non-obvious relationship, because I love them and you've ruined it.
Who ever decided a complete rewrite of the book needs to be shot because Isabella and Alec do not go to the hotel Dumort, that's the whole point of that event. That Jace went without his Parabatai. I get the feeling that the director couldn't be bothered to read the book, so looked up a synopsis online and therefore massacred our beloved book. The whole ending was just wrong. There was no foresaken, there was no dramatic portal scene (there was a different portal scene but it was unoriginal and not OUR scene), apparently Jocelyn just happened to be in the basement of the institute which is coincidentally where everyone happens to be, and also where there are floods of weird demons invading. This is a whole other issue, because the institute is hallowed ground, they physically cannot be on hallowed ground because they are damned. You can't just invite them in, because that doesn't even make sense.
Magnus Bane was played terribly, I have seen amateur plays that are more believable than his performance. He wasn't witty or charmy, and he didn't have any presence.
I realise that this is a very nit-picky type of review, but as a whole I was generally displeased and not only because it differed from the book, but because it made no sense. And, alright, it was awful. I'll admit it.
I went to see it with a friend who had never been anywhere near the books, and towards the end neither of us had any clue what was going on. Apparently Clary has to drink her dad's blood out of a cup, Jace is fighting Valentine, Isabella has a blowtorch, Hodge can't seem to decide what side he is on, touching a portal with a Steele makes it snow, Valentine has some sword fetish, Clary's wandering around and I just can't handle how wrong the whole thing was. Wrong wrong wrong wrong.
Dear Sony/Harald Zwalt, please try harder next time. Try bringing some book fans on board, or maybe just sticking to the actual storyline. That usually helps.
I sincerely hope you don't bring out a sequel, I don't want you to ruin the other books too.
Lots of love
Sarah
Xoxoxoxoxo
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