![]() ![]() They're indoors at the time, so after the kiss, the boy-bait in question sheepishly explains that they were cooled down by fire sprinklers. And when Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), the film's main villain, does show up, he's conspicuously shirt-free.Įven the scene where Clary kisses one of her two wannabe-lovers is marred by the begrudging acknowledgment that yes, canned romance or no canned romance, when they kiss it starts to rain. Jace only loses his shirt to self-mortify with a rune. He's still gratuitously semi-naked, but he's not getting sexy to please Clary. He's stripped, and suspended in mid-air with chains and plastic tubing, making Simon accidental eye candy. Simon's divested of his shirt by vampires that use him for bait. Simon loses his shirt before Jace does, but it isn't a choice he makes. Girls aren't supposed to look at half-naked boys out of sexual interest, it seems, so the looking is excused with scenarios loaded with weirdly negative connotations. Preludes to sex and romance are unhealthily stigmatized. When she inevitably has to choose between her two almost-lovers, she rejects one of them as a consequence of a bewildering but convenient and familiar plot twist.ĭespite the film's desperate attempts at distinguishing itself from other YA series (Irish werewolf bikers! A gay Asian magician whose short-shorts barely cover a single cheek!), "City of Bones"' romance is at least as tortured as "Twilight"'s love triangle. ![]() In the end, she doesn't make all of her own decisions. Clary isn't much more independent than Bella Swan. According to the low standards of YA romance that were set by "Twilight," that is progress. By the end of "City of Bones," Clary is more confused and aroused than she was before. With the help of Jace's equally secretive friends, Clary and Simon go in search of a magical chalice.Īlong the way, they find love, the kind that starts with protests of disinterest, and ends with…well, more disingenuous disinterest. Clary looks for answers with two boys who have feelings for her: Jace, a mysterious Byronic boy with runes all over his body, and Simon ( Robert Sheehan), a nebbish childhood best friend with flat abs. Musclebound, leather-clad heavies attack her home and force her mother Jocelyn ( Lena Headey) and Jocelyn's boyfriend Luke ( Aidan Turner) to run away. Soon after she sees this loaded symbol in the foam head of her cappuccino, Clary's world is turned upside down. She realizes the extent of her above-averageness after she sees a forceps-like symbol everywhere she goes. ![]() Like most YA heroines, Clary is not your average teenage girl. But if "City of Bones" is going to address hormonal teens, even ones who will be seeing the film with their mothers, then the film really shouldn't make such a big thing of wanting a little canned romance, and some eye candy, too. ![]() Admittedly, you may want to take the admonitions and speculation of a twenty-something male film critic with a pinch of salt. This isn't the last time "City of Bones" tries to set itself apart from "Twilight." It tries to do the same things that "Twilight" does but it goes about it in even worse ways, with weird ideas about romance and almost-sex. Jace then keeps his shirt on and heals her with rune magic. "If you wanted me to get naked, you just had to ask," he winks. Jace ( Jamie Campbell Bower)-a brooding, blonde demon-hunter-does shed his top later in "City of Bones." But when Clary ( Lily Collins), the film's main protagonist, gets a wound on her forearm, she jokes that Jace will stanch her wound with his shirt. ![]()
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