MovieChat Forums > The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) Discussion > Fan of the Book thinks this movie floppe...

Fan of the Book thinks this movie flopped because of casting.

posted 10 years ago by canadiancole-92-872935
15 replies | jump to latest

I had never read anything by Cassandra Clare prior to The Mortal Instruments, but her writing style, and the content of her novels was interesting enough and well written enough to en-capture me in the series.

As a well versed reader, I am always excited but somewhat skeptical when a book becomes a movie. When I heard that they were going to be making a "City of Bones" film, I immediately started thinking about who in my mind would be perfect for the roles. For Clary I always imagined someone like Chloe Grace Moretz, or Ashley Benson, but thats just me. In my opinion Lily Collins wasn't an awful choice, but the script and writing didn't help her all that much!. Like twilight, Cassandra Clare knows the secret to appealing to female readers is to give the heroine very few defining features, so that the readers can insert themselves into the story in the heroine's place. Imagining a hot brooding cocky sarcastic hunk like Jace falling in love with them is the most exciting thing that is going to happen to some of those readers ;).

The real crime in the casting was Jace. Really?! Jamie Campbell Bower?! Seriously I never liked Jamie Campbell Bower since the first time i saw him in Sweeney Todd: The Demon barber of fleet street. His acting choices are limited to pouting, whiny, ultra-feminine temper tantrums. Best known for having a complete and total lack of masculine sex appeal! Hell, He would have been better cast as Clary. In the book, Jace is a heart throbbing, arousal inducing, drop dead gorgeous ball of sarcastically cocky testosterone and charisma. Alex Pettyfer as many have suggested was a much more logical choice [even though his acting is a bit rough around the edges....but at least he is HOT]. Hell even Cam Gigandet or Liam Hemsworth would have been better in the role! [and Cam looks straight up evil :P]

I'm sorry but I can't support sequels being made where both the main characters who are supposed to be falling in love are in a competition to see who can be a better heroine! The real shame is that the author seems to love the casting choices, which makes me question just how she wrote Jace the way he is in the book. If Jamie Bower is playing Jace the way you envisioned him Cassandra you should re-read your own book because your editor made some pretty hefty changes!

The casting choice of Jace was so bad, it's not even worth analyzing Kevin Zegers, or Robert Sheehan because it's hard to play secondary male leads when the primary male lead doesn't exist.

[–] olivimus 10 years ago

Wow, I literally agree with everything you wrote (especially the Jamie Bower part). I heard they are making the rest of the books into a series, and the article said, and I quote, "More than likely this unfortunately means they will be recasting". :)

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] pcyiu9 9 years ago

I thought Lily Collins was better as Snow White than Kristen Stewart :p

But she was terrible in this.

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I miss Giles.

[–] FatalxKrystal 10 years ago

For Clary I always imagined someone like Chloe Grace Moretz, or Ashley Benson, but thats just me

...

The real shame is that the author seems to love the casting choices, which makes me question just how she wrote Jace the way he is in the book. If Jamie Bower is playing Jace the way you envisioned him Cassandra you should re-read your own book because your editor made some pretty hefty changes!

You're not really one to say anything after those parts. Just saying.

In the book, Jace is a heart throbbing, arousal inducing, drop dead gorgeous ball of sarcastically cocky testosterone and charisma. Alex Pettyfer as many have suggested was a much more logical choice [even though his acting is a bit rough around the edges....but at least he is HOT].

I personally loved Jamie as Jace. I loved that he actually cared about doing Jace justice, considering what a bad script he had to work with. I would rather have a "ugly" Jace with depth than a extremely hot Jace with no acting ability. Alex Pettyfer is nothing but eye candy and his acting chops are wooden (average at best) and he doesn't seem to be interested in fixing that since he's been choosing bad movies to be in.

I would always rather be happy than dignified. 😁

[–] xabeautifulliex 10 years ago

I wasn't a fan of Lily, but I loved Jamie as Jace. I personally think he's quite attractive. When I first started reading the books, I did imagine Jace as Alex Pettyfer (I kind of fell like Jace was modelled on him tbh) and the picture on the front of the book reminded me of him too, so I pretty disappointed when he wasn't cast. I wasn't too sure on Jamie at first but when I saw the movie I thought, yep good choice, Hopefully the make as a good a choice with the new cast.

Does it run in your blood, to betray the ones you love?

[–] mojo2004 10 years ago

I did imagine Jace as Alex Pettyfer (I kind of fell like Jace was modelled on him tbh) and the picture on the front of the book reminded me of him too, so I pretty disappointed when he wasn't cast.

Actually he did get the part. He was the first choice but he passed on the role.

MOJO2004

[–] xabeautifulliex 10 years ago

Yeah I know. After I Am Number he didn't want to do anymore YA because he didn't want to be typecast (as I understand it), and I understand why he would pass. JCB ended up being a pretty great Jace for me

Does it run in your blood, to betray the ones you love?

[–] scottiecruz-891-336570 10 years ago

I have to respectfully disagree that the cast was the reason TMI underperformed at the box office. TMI, like Beautiful Creatures, flopped because the script strayed too far from the books and too many fans of the books stayed away from the theaters because of it. The film was also marketed badly, mainly to the teen audience, instead of trying to gain a more diverse audience, as Maze Runner and Divergent did successfully. Everyone has their own idea who should have been cast. In my opinion the cast was TMI's strongest feature, not it's weakest.

[–] green_eire 10 years ago

I 100% agree. The casting was totally fine, I loved all the casting choices, especially for Isabelle and Alec as well as Simon. Actually I can not think of a heavily miscasted character. The main problem was the lack of character development due to bad writing and also a lack of screen time for many characters such as Luke. If they would have used some of the character quotes from the books, which were great, the overall portrayal of some Characters would have been better and some really bad dialogues could have been avoided. I also agree on the fact, that they could have adapted the movie for an older audience aswell, since there was enough potential in the story for being more dark, evil, violent and bloody..

[–] SnapCrackledThePop 10 years ago

Well, I've never read the book and just watched it. If anything this movie couldn't hold its own because of a bad script. So many details must have been left out because there was just too much confusion.

[–] thewanderingdreamer 10 years ago

I think it flopped was because TMI was mediocore at best.

CC's trademarks when writing are never-ending stories with chapters a mile long, tossed with every cliche {werewolves, vampires, demons, angels, nephilim} you can find and cool quotes/wittisms. When foreshadowing she hammers the herrings into your head with a jackhammer so that even a child can predict what is going to happen next.

Clary at best is a Mary Sue {Cassandra Clare = Clary and let's note CC has red hair} who is a whiny spoiled brat. All she cares about is herself and her love affair with Jace {yeah I really hated the scene where she snubs her mom to go out with Simon and then screams at Simon for not picking up the phone when her mother calls - honestly if you treat your mom like crap then don't blame others if they do so as wel}.

Unfortunately, the movie was even more cliche then the books with love scenes between Clary and Jace {I've never met an angel before, now I have", the stroking of her hair through the portal}.

I think one of the real crimes was having someone of Jonathan Rhys Meyers standard playing a sterotypical villian. I nearly cried when I saw him looking like this cariacture of a bad guy.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] natalieroxanne-66003 10 years ago

Seriously? You think it was poor casting because the actor for Jace wasn't hot enough? Oh dear.

At first when Jamie waltzed onto the screen I thought, "Who the hell is that? That's not Jace... no way." So yeah, first impression wasn't good. But as the film went on I found Jamie's interpretation of Jace to be pretty spot on. I thought his acting was the best of the lot (well, actually Robert's portrayal of Simon was perfect). I agree with a lot of the folk on here, hotness does not an actor make. And Jace was more than good looks too. That's what made him such a likeable character in the books. I'd rather have an average-looking lead actor who understands the subtleties of a character as opposed to someone who merely looks the part.

I think that it was Lily that let me down the most. Aside from the bad styling choices (I'm sorry, but her hair was most certainly NOT red in the film and expertly tousled waves don’t count as 'curly hair'), her interpretation of the character was so far off the mark. I didn't believe that she was in love with Jace at all. The kissing scene was atrocious and I blame it all on her. Jamie's looks of longing throughout the film solidified his infatuation with Lily’s character, but I wasn't feeling it from her end. However, that may have been down to the directing. I mean, they should have picked up on that sort of thing while filming and told her to buck up and starting pretending to like Jamie a bit more.

But let's talk about the real tragedy in this film and that is the casting of Magnus Bane. Yes, I admit that the actor looked like the character from the books, but did the editors dub his voice or something? It was so wooden and so high-school dramatics that I was embarrassed for Godfrey. Surely a Hollywood actor cast in a film like this can't have been THAT terrible. Oh wait... yes he could. Proof that casting solely based on looks rather than talent is a bad decision.

[–] Shimmer_Me_Timbers 9 years ago

I think that Jocelyn, Clary, Simon, and Magnus were the only decent casting choices in the movie. Yes, I liked Robert Sheehan.

I could deal with Aidan Turner because you can make the argument that as a werewolf he doesn't age at the same rate as the other shadow hunters.

Johnathan Rhys Meyers was unfortunate... he could've been really good but it boils down to his costume choice. I think he would've benefitted from being a polished suit clad bad-guy rather than decked out in leather/tattoos and a jacked up hairdo.

But everyone else was all over the place. Kevin Zegers looked more like the age of the adults than he did the "kids"... which is a huge problem in the context of the story.

For as multi-polar as the casting choice was I think it was ultimately the script writing that killed the movie. Well that and playing a cheesy pop song during Clary and Jace making out in the green house... come on, who thought that was a good idea?