Sunday, August 25, 2013

The City of Bones - Movie and Book

I love a good book. I love a good book series even more. I have had the Mortal Instruments on my radar for a while, but my reading list is long, really, really long. I knew the movie was coming out this summer, so I knew I needed to read the first book before I saw the movie. Which I had to see, it's my kind of movie - the kind that is based on a book. 

I started reading The Mortal Instruments mid July. I just finished book 5 of the series. The last book (6), will publish next year. As you can see, I've sped through 5 books in a little under 5 weeks. Wow, I need to read a bit faster, there is no reason why it should take me a week to read a book! Hahaha, I kid, I kid...or do I?



Anyways, I'm LOVING this series. I'm dying to talk about it too. But no one I know is reading them. So I must keep my words to myself. Until today, until Rob went with me to see the City of Bones. The movie only showed Rob a glimpse into the fantasy world that has consumed me, but it was enough and he wanted to know more. So he asked a simple question...two hours later, after all his questions were answered and I had nothing left to explain, we both took a deep sigh. 

I really liked the movie. There was this one part in the movie however, that was just horrible. I regret the fact that in the book, it was one of my favorites.The first love scene. You know the scene where the hero and the heroine kiss for the first time? Yeah, I live for those scenes and it was the corniest thing I've seen in a while. Cue the out of the place Demi Lovato song and Disneyesque garden greenhouse plus a sprinkler system that doesn't actually get the couple soaked. Minus that one part, I was happy with the adaptation of the book. 


Like most movies based on books, the writers changed a few things. The ending was kind of right, there were some explanations that were left out that I felt were important and should have been shared. All of the characters fit perfectly. It was actually the first time I've ever liked Lily Collins. Really, I wasn't thrilled she was playing Clary, but I couldn't not have been happier after watching the movie. 




As a side note, if you look at my Goodreads account, you will see I only gave the first book 3 out of 5 stars. Main reason being the hero and heroine (the kissing couple from above) finds out at the end of the book that they are brother and sister. Same Mom AND Dad. Yuck! I was furious. FURIOUS! I was not going to read any more of the books. So I did a little research and found that they end up not being siblings and become a couple. The details were not important - it was all I needed to continue the series. However, in the book, we don't find out until the very end of book 3. 

As the reader, you don't know the truth until they know the truth. But for the sake of all those moviegoers who have not read the book, Hodge (Jared Harris) tells Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) "Just tell them they are siblings, it will break their hearts" or something like that and there we all know the truth. Right there in movie one. I see the point, letting the viewer in on the secret. But in my opinion it was the most significant change from the book.

I'm looking forward to the other movies. The second in the series, City of Ash will be due out next year, probably late summer or a Christmas movie. Either way, you can count on me being right there opening weekend to see it! 


If you haven't seen the trailer, check out...




So, have you read the book(s)? Do you want to read them? Do you want to see the movie? I would totally be up for seeing it again...

-Lauren 


2 comments:

Amanda said...

I've never heard of these! Or the movie! Guess I'll have to check them out.

Aue85 said...

Yeah, I had never heard of the books either until I saw a preview last year at the last Twilight movie. haha. It has become (quite rapidly) one of my FAVORITE book series. I'm still going through a withdraw from them,a week later. I rushed into a new book and I'm still thinking about the series.