I recently watched two movies
adapted from YA books, Beautiful
Creatures and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
Beautiful
Creatures
The Book (by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl): Lena, a caster (witch) will have to choose
between the light and the dark on her 16th birthday. She falls in love with a mortal, Ethan,
triggering a long standing curse in her family.
The Movie: I understand that
the pace of the southern lifestyle isn’t exactly fast and furious, but it
seemed to take a long time for anything to happen. And once it did, I still didn’t feel any
urgency or suspense. The special effects
were sparse and not that great. But the
main problem was that the two leads, Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich)
and Lena (Alice Englert), had good chemistry, it was just the wrong kind; it
felt more like buddy chemistry than fated lovers chemistry. Alden Ehrenreich brought a lot of energy to
the role, but his attempt at a southern accent was so thick and exaggerated that
at times I needed subtitles. And he
crossed the line from quirky to goofy which is just not swoon worthy. On the other hand, the supporting cast reveled
in their eccentric characters. The movie may be worth watching just for Emma
Thompson’s performance alone. She was good
as the wanton and wicked southern belle gone bad.
Rotten Tomatoes critics rate
this movie as 46% fresh with comments that it has “charming leads,” but is “plodding”
and “watered down.”
My final verdict: read the
book and skip the movie.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
The Book (by Cassandra Clare): Fifteen year old
Clary accidentally runs into Shadowhunters: warriors dedicated to ridding the
earth of demons. Clary is pulled into their world with a vengeance when her
mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon.
The Movie: First off, I’m
guessing that this film had a much larger budget. The special effects were great and there were
lots of them. Being set in New York City
already lends to a faster pace and the plot kept moving quickly with lots of
action. The cast was excellent with
crackling chemistry between the leads (Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins). Robert Sheehan was a perfect choice for the
awkward best friend and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is always deliciously
villainous. The film is fairly similar
to the book with mostly minor changes and a much more dramatic final sequence
involving a lot more characters. I liked
the movie and thought it was fun to watch.
Rotten Tomatoes critics rate
this movie as only 12% fresh with a comment that it “borrows ingredients from
seemingly every fantasy franchise of the last 30 years -- but can't seem to
figure out what to do with them.”
However, the audience rates it as 61% fresh. The books have garnered criticism for having
the exact same plot as Harry Potter,
but that obviously doesn’t put people off because it has been a very successful
series.
My final verdict: read the
book first then enjoy the movie.
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