The one thing this movie managed to do was capture the visual style I felt the book conveyed but otherwise we were left with something that neither fans, critics or general audiences were particularly impressed by

Full Review | Jul 4, 2021

This is one incredibly mixed-up, poorly planned, annoyingly-plotted mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/10 | Dec 3, 2020

Screenwriter Jessica Postigo serves up a script that feels like a working draft.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4.0 | Sep 17, 2020

Certainly has all the ingredients required to pique the curiosity of its target audience, yet offers only a tasteless and uninspired union of its literary conventions.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 2, 2019

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is a deft piece of fantasy filmmaking, exciting and engaging. Young adults and actual adults alike can enjoy it - it takes the format and makes it feel fresh, fun and even a little scary.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jan 26, 2019

Outlandishly clichéd and cockeyed, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones is meshed together with all the conviction of preparing homemade goulash but without a comprehensive taste for escapist originality.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 17, 2018

They spend less than five minutes in the City of Bones. Will make you feel bad about your ab routine.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2018

The actors wholeheartedly take on their roles, treating the material with the respect devotees expect.

Full Review | Nov 6, 2018

Lily Collins is a talented, beautiful young actress, but even she couldn't save this. And sadly, there are more to come.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 6, 2018

The amount of scene-setting may disappoint those familiar with the story and looking for more, but this is an interesting world and story to explore.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 8, 2017

Still they come, trying to fill that Harry Potter/Twilight-shaped gap. This adaptation of Cassandra Clare's young adult series-launcher is an unashamedly derivative market filler.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 5, 2017

The character development and story beats are quite predictable and that's the irony of Zwart's film: he's made a mundane movie for an audience of mundanes.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jun 28, 2016

It didn't help that the execution of the complex storyline was so messy and confusing that it was difficult to understand why the villain was doing what he was doing.

Full Review | Original Score: 5.5/10 | Jul 20, 2015

'Author' Cassandra Clare assumes that you have never seen a film or read a book in your entire life. She steals plot details from Star Wars, Harry Potter and Twilight and assumes that no one will notice. I did.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 10, 2013

Awful, expensive, over-long, unremittingly dull attempt to start a Twilight-like franchise... plans were already underway for the sequel before this was released. They might just want to wait to see if anybody's interested first.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Sep 29, 2013

If you can overlook the lack of originality, the film actually makes a good fist of making something fresh and appealing from its second-hand ingredients.

Full Review | Sep 7, 2013

Way to give overwrought fan fiction a bad name. No amount of fairy dust can make this bewitching.

Full Review | Sep 1, 2013

Traz uma série de elementos interessantes que acabam sendo sacrificados pela vontade da história de investir num romance mergulhado em pieguice e clichês.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 1, 2013

In the end it comes off as rather inoffensively been-there, done-that--except for Jamie Campbell Bower, that is, who is strictly WTF.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 31, 2013

Who cares about a life-or-death battle with evil spirits when there's angst-ridden teen relationship drama in the mix?

Full Review | Aug 30, 2013