Line #4 YMMV/TheMortalInstrumentsCityOfBones


1	* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Unless you were already a fan of [[Literature/TheMortalInstruments the books]], the film looked like a formulaic copy-and-paste of other YA UrbanFantasy works like ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' and ''Film/HarryPotter'' (its derivative story and characters were one of the main criticisms in reviews). The movie cut out a lot of exposition and character-building moments to [[CompressedAdaptation fit the story]] into a two-hour film, which [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks annoyed book fans]] and led to [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole confusion among non-book readers]]. The [[ItWasHisSled infamous]] SurpriseIncest subplot was also a turn-off for viewers who just wanted to watch a straight-forward {{paranormal romance}} and is arguably an inappropriate subject for younger audiences who might otherwise be interested in the film.[[note]]the books do reveal that the characters ''aren't'' actually siblings, which slightly offsets the situation, but this [[SavedForTheSequel isn't mentioned]] in the film[[/note]] All this culminated in ''City of Bones'' being a box office disappointment and the cancellation of the sequels, with the franchise later getting a more successful [[TheShowOfTheBooks TV adaptation]], ''Series/{{Shadowhunters}}''.
2	* ClicheStorm: Let's see...the seemingly ordinary protagonist discovers she has a SecretLegacy involving a hidden world of magical beings and is whisked off to a magic school, is torn romantically between a bad boy and her childhood friend, finds out she has powers that are super rare even amongst her own kind, and discovers that her long-lost dad is [[spoiler:the BigBad whom her mother was trying to hide her from]]. The only part that was less predictable was the revelation that [[spoiler:the protagonist's main love interest is actually her brother]], although this didn't exactly work in the film's favor given the ick factor.
3	* HilariousInHindsight: One of the Simon's complaints about Jace is that he's dyed blonde, despite Jace arguing he is not. Jamie Campbell Bower is a natural blonde, but the next person to play Jace, Dominic Sherwood, did dye his hair blonde for the role.
4	* OpinionMyopia: Many either think the film failed because it was a half-assed ''Film/{{Twilight}}'' ripoff or think it failed because ''Twilight'' was so bad that it poisoned the well for other, better supernatural young-adult novels being adapted to film.
5	* {{Squick}}: The incest subplot. Namely, the movie spends a big chunk of time establishing [[spoiler:Clary]] and [[spoiler:Jace]] as the OfficialCouple, including a passionate BigDamnKiss. Then the BigBad reveals they're actually long-lost half-siblings. Admittedly, if you've read the books you know it turns out they're ''not'' siblings after all...but the movie doesn't mention this due it being SavedForTheSequel.
6	* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: It's nearly impossible to find a review of the film that ''doesn't'' point out how similar it is to earlier properties, especially franchises that were popular at the time of its release. Most commonly cited were ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' (magic world hidden from 'muggles' which the main character is secretly part of and a magic school of sorts), ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' (vampires, werewolves and love triangles), and ''Franchise/StarWars'' (the BigBad betrayed the other magic people and is revealed to be [[spoiler:the protagonist's dad]]...oh and SurpriseIncest, of all things). The biggest issue most audiences and critics had with this is that the movie comes across less as being merely inspired by these other franchises and more like it just mashed elements of them together, resulting in a rather bland end product with little identity of its own.
7	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Executive producer Martin Moszkowicz stated that he felt one of the reasons the movie failed to take off was because it was heavily marketed towards a younger demographic than the majority of the books' readers; due to the more mature content (in particular the BrotherSisterIncest plotline) and the age of the main characters (late teens), ''The Mortal Instruments'' books tended to attract readers in their late teens and twenties. As such, the books' core demographic may have felt alienated that the film seemed to be geared towards tweens, while simultaneously being inappropriate or unappealing to kids. Notably, the ContinuityReboot, ''Shadowhunters'', avoided this by being squarely aimed at an older audience, including [[AgeLift aging up the main cast]] and ramping up the [[BloodierAndGorier violence]] and [[HotterAndSexier sexual content]].
8	--> '''Moszkowicz:''' The readers of ''Mortal Instruments'' are older than you might think. That may have been one issue in our marketing, that we focused too much on a very young audience segment.

Context YMMV / TheMortalInstrumentsCityOfBones