Premise: A young woman finds out she's a demon hunter - oh, and that demons are real.
I'm going to do something freeing. I'm going to admit that I only watched this movie because Lily Collins is pretty and I wouldn't have to commit much energy to this. I'll put in a lot of effort sometimes to cover up that I saw a movie for a similar reason. Today, I don't have the energy for it.
Because, I certainly didn't watch this movie expecting it to be very good. It's a failed franchise starter from a decade ago with few actors I can name today. Say what you will about Divergent, but those movies casted amazingly. They had Theo James, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, and Ansel Elgort all hanging around to support Shailene Woodley. In Mortal Instruments, Lily Collins has Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Jemima West, and Kevin Zegers. No offense to any of them, but who are they? I love Lily Collins, but she is not a one-woman blockbuster. The caliber of adult actors feels a little second tier too. To keep with the Divergent comparison, that series had Oscar winners like Kate Winslet and Octavia Spencer as well as one-time A-listers like Ashley Judd. The Mortal Instruments has TV character actor all-stars like Lena Headey, CCH Pounder, and Jared Harris.
The story is too generic to stand out. That doesn't leave much to differentiate the movie. The end result is a film that only applies to the fans of the books this is based on and Lily Collins fans who don't value their time much. That's not enough for a sustainable series. That said, please don't judge me when I inevitably see The Host with Saoirse Ronan for similarly flimsy reasons.
Verdict: Strongly Don't Recommend
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