Supernatural fantasy series seem to be the buzz genre among today’s teens, and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones appears destined to become the next cult phenomena.

Based on the Mortal Instruments novels by Cassandra Clare, Clary (Lily Collins) is forced to discover her unusual past when her mother goes missing. What she finds out is that her memory has been blocked by magic, and everything she has held as the truth until now, is a lie.

She encounters the mysterious Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) who knows more about her ‘kind’ than she does. Jace brings her into his inner sanctum, convinced that Clary is in fact a shadow hunter (think: demon hunting type), and her linage may be key to the survival of his kind.

In order to find her mother and learn the true extent of her gifts, Clary must enter the City of Bones and survive attacks from various interested parties, including vampires, werewolves and her long lost dad.

Targeted clearly at teens, the film is mild in both its violence and its narrative sophistication. It would be easy to harshly critique it for its obvious limitations, but, like Twilight before it, this is a film with a clear target demographic—teenage girls—and I have little doubt it’s going to appeal to them immensely.

While the adults in the audience may sneer at the obvious plot machinations and the trite love triangle, the fantasy elements seem perfectly at home with the extremes of teenage emotions, in particular the lurching intensities and fragile uncertainties of adolescent desire. The opening of the film is engaging, but the more that we learn about Clary, the less some of us may care to know, which is where it all falls down for me.

Lily Collins is enchantingly beautiful, she’s tough and brave and almost in control of her emotions, which makes her a more appealing female lead than many who’ve stood before her. She will easily be loved by teen girls wanting to be her, and teen boys simply wanting her.

If ‘schlock fantasy’ were a genre, then City of Bones would be well at home. But should you choose to suspend your harsh adult gaze momentarily, you will understand its appeal to teen girls and feel comfortable that this is a film they can watch and indulge in without an overload of overt violence, necrophilia or teen pregnancy that the last aforementioned supernatural series contained.

City of Ashes is already in preproduction, so like or not, we’re in for the long haul with this one.

Directed by: Harald Zwart
Starring: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Lena Headey
Rating: PG
Runtime: 130mins
Release Date: 22 August
Reviewer rating: 3/5