The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Title: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Movie)

Director: Harald Zwart

Distributor: Screen Gems

Copyright: 2013

Genre: Action/Adventure/Occult

Age Range: 13+

Watcher’s Annotation: Clary Fray finds out more about the dark side of her past while stopping the destruction of the world. 

Plot Summary: Clary Fray lives in New York with her mother Jocelyn. She sees a strange symbol everywhere worrying her mother and her mother’s friend Luke Garroway. Clary goes out to a club with her friend Simon and she is the only one who sees a man killed by a hooded figure in black. Jocelyn is abducted by two unknown men. Jocelyn is able to warn Clary about a man named Valentine, but does not leave any detail before taking a potion that puts her to sleep. When Clary gets home, she is attacked by a demon while looking for her missing mother. She is saved by Jace, the hooded figure that killed the man in the club. Jace is a Shadowhunter, a warrior that kills the demons from the downworld. Clary finds out that her mom was a Shadowhunter and has a inherited those abilities, like seeing and using runes. Madame Dorothea, a witch, figures out that the two men who kidnapped Jocelyn are after the Mortal Cup, an important and powerful relic.

            Simon is made able to see Jace and they head to Luke’s bookstore. The two abductors, Pangborn and Blackwell, are questioning a restrained Luke about the Mortal Cup. Luke tells them he doesn’t care for Jocelyn and only wants the cup. A fight ensues and the three teens escape to the Institute. It is the headquarters for the Shadowhunters where they meet Alec and Isabelle Lightwood and the leader Hodge Starkweather. He tells them that Valentine is a banished ex-shadowhunter that is determined to get the mortal cup to control both Shadowhunters and demons. Hodge tells Jace to take Clary to the Silent Brothers in the City of Bones.

            The Silent Brothers discover that her mind has been blocked by Magnus, a warlock. They go to see Magnus at his club. Clary finds out that Jocelyn had him block out the Shadowhunter world. Meanwhile, Simon is kidnapped by vampires. Clary, Jace, Alec, and Isabelle track down the vampires and rescue Simon, but in the fight the Shadowhunters are outnumbered until werewolves show up and save them. They head back to the Institute where Jace and Clary have a romantic evening. Simon confronts her with his love and Clary rejects him.

            Clary realizes the Mortal Cup is in one of Madame Dorothea's tarot cards that were painted by her mother. When they go to retrieve it, Madame Dorothea has been replaced by a demon they must defeat. During the battle, Alec is wounded badly, and Clary recovers the Mortal Cup. On return, Clary give the Mortal Cup to Hodge who swiftly betrays them by giving Valentine the cup. Valentine reveals that he is Clary father. He invites her to join him, but she escapes through the portal to Luke’s Bookstore. Clary is able to round up Luke and the werewolves to fight Valentine, but will she be in time before Valentine is able to control both worlds?

Critical Evaluation: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was a popular book. It had a mild success in theaters and continued to succeed with DVD rentals. While it has not won any awards, it is still a popular movie to have in a collection because it is a film adaptation of the book series that is also popular. For those teens who like to see the movie instead of read the book, it is a good introduction into the world of the Shadowhunters and may inspire them to begin reading the next book in the series since another movie has not been released as of yet.

Director’s Information: Harald Zwart was born on July 1, 1965 in the Netherlands as Harald Johan Zwart. He is a director and producer, known for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013), The Karate Kid (2010) and One Night at McCool's (2001). He is married to Veslemøy Ruud Zwart. Source - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0958969/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Curriculum Ties: Folklore

Challenge Issues: Magic; Violence

Movie Talk Ideas: Shadows – One could start by talking about what lives in the shadows and transition to the demons that live in the shadows of Clary’s new world.