The story is formulaic to begin with but the lack of creativity in this film is staggering.

The plot is so tedious and boring that it doesn’t hold your interest for more than the first ten minutes. And with every passing minute, you couldn’t care less about any of the characters.

Earlier this year, when I watched The Host, I thought this is so bad that it makes The Twilight series look like The Godfather. Well, as it turns out we weren’t at the bottom of the barrel yet. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is so bad that it makes The Host look like high art.

Director Harald Zwart, who earlier presented Karate Kid, struggles to deliver this rather overtly complicated story effectively. There’s so much bouncing around in tone and story that the film flounders with its cheesiness. There are features worth revealing in the film, and thankfully, it is less self-serious than the Twilight films.

Nevertheless, the young and the exuberant will find The Mortal Instruments – City Of Bones worth a watch.

If you fancy action-fantasies like Underworld, Twilight, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, you might like this one.