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It’s clear from the start that “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” doesn’t take itself too seriously, as the movie is stocked with surprisingly funny comic relief, but is it possible that this also is the first young-adult-fantasy adaptation that knows, in its gut, that it’s utterly ridiculous?
Forced to cram an impossible abundance of plot into a 130-minute running time, “City of Bones” basically buckles under the weight of its too-muchness, but eventually, it seems to embrace and fly free with its mad swirl of elements, becoming a knowing bit of good trash instead of just another “Twilight”/“Hunger Games” also-ran.
Based on the first book of Cassandra Clare’s “Mortal Instruments” series (and thus, intended as the start of a bankable film franchise), “City of Bones” imagines New York as a place with a subculture far weirder than hipsters — a catch-all world of vampires, werewolves, angels and demons that only a special few can see. One of those few is Clary (Lily Collins), a Brooklyn teen who, like her mom (Lena Headey) and the blonde, tattooed Adonis-type, Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), is a “shadowhunter,” a half-angel protector of humans and nifty stuff like “The Mortal Cup.”
That brief synopsis doesn’t even begin to cover the movie’s wild scope, but no matter. What’s more noteworthy is how “City of Bones” doesn’t pretend to be much more than a swoon-worthy parade of gorgeous faces, from Collins and Bower to Jemima West and Kevin Zegers, who play additional pore-free shadowhunters to ogle. Whereas “Twilight” was deadly serious with its handsome romances, this film pokes fun at them and flaunts its sci-fi libido, even touching on homosexuality and possible incest amid its love quadrangle.
The triumph of all this tacky self-awareness is that it adds some kooky glee to the process of sitting through another implausible, computer-graphics creature-fest. “City of Bones” surely wants to be taken seriously on some level, but as it shuffles its cast of models through overcooked scenarios with its tongue in its cheek, it comes within inches of being a young-adult spoof.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
PG-13
Two reels out of four
Now playing at area theaters
Recommended Rental
The Great Gatsby
PG-13
Available Tuesday
Though Baz Luhrmann lets his taste for kaleidoscopic excess get the better of him, the Aussie director does do a few things right with his frantic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary classic. He nails the hollow pageantry of the titular antihero’s legendary bashes, and he casts the film impeccably, drawing unmissable performances from Joel Edgerton, Elizabeth Debicki, Carey Mulligan, and, as the big man himself, a rightfully tragic Leonardo DiCaprio.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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