The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones 2013

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: References to "Star Wars" and the Harry Potter and Twilight universes pose less of a problem than the increasingly messy action scenes and an overabundance of main characters, more than enough to fuel several franchises. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: So derivative of Joss Whedon, George Lucas, J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer that it feels like a postmodern young-adult mishmash. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A ludicrous, borderline-nonsensical supernatural concoction with a slightly redeeming sense of its own silliness. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: City of Bones isn't the worst of its kind, but crap served with flair is still basically crap. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: On the page, all of these elements may cohere into something distinctive, perhaps through the help of colorful prose. Onscreen, not so much. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The perfect movie for those who thought the "Twilight" series just wasn't quite teenage girly enough. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" plays like a "Scary Movie" parody. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: It desperately gathers cliches like a teen fantasy Frankenstein that doesn't realize its secret identity: parody. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The film drags on for 130 minutes, with the final half-hour consisting of near nonstop bashing between demons, werewolves and magical kids in sleek black outfits. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: More than just another watered-down tween franchise wannabe. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Everything you're looking for, provided you're looking for nothing. Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: This desperate Twilight wannabe hits more than its own share of clunky notes. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: The fact that there is already at least one sequel planned feels more like a threat than a treat. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: Hollywood has more than enough high-caliber young adult lit to mine. Filmmakers should tap into richer human stories. We mere mortals would dearly appreciate it. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: "The Mortal Instruments" franchise is strictly for the initiated. They will no doubt love it. Everyone else will be flummoxed. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: There are too many characters, and too many of them spend too much time morphing into something else. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: Alas, the titular City of Bones is more of a basement. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" hopes to be the start of a new franchise for tweens and Twihards, but the twuth is this twash is anything but a twiumph. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Every fantasy creature except zombies get a workout in this overstuffed spectacle about a teenage girl who discovers she has angelic blood in her veins. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: The film's primary problem is its premature climax. It goes for the big action crescendo early, then tries to sustain that wild intensity for a solid hour. Admirable, but exhausting. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It sticks so closely to the YA formula that it feels like a mashup of a watery fantasy with soap opera. Suds overflow. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: An almost random collection of sexy-supernatural teen signifiers aimed at squeezing the penultimate dollars out of a declining trend. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Every moviegoer will have his own breaking point, when "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" surpasses the mundane and enters the ridiculous. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: With its spectacle, morbid sense of humor and hustling pace, "The Mortal Instruments" encourages you to shrug and just go with it. Read more

Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times: Everything chugs along briskly and reasonably entertainingly until running off the rails a bit with a wildly overcomplicated finale. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Mortal Instruments manages to occupy 130 minutes of frantic, numbing, activity. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: [Zwart] finally has a vehicle that tests his talents. His dark vision of the shadow world beyond the ordinary one is intricately detailed and believable throughout, even if much of it is the product of CGI mastery. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: [The filmmakers] throw in everything from witches and vampires and demons to gay warlocks, mini-skirted monster hunters and werewolf bikers, but this silly epic never goes anywhere remotely interesting. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: [It] gets off to an entertaining, action-packed start ... But it's soon bogged down by an increasingly convoluted plot, an overindulgent running time and absurd dialogue. Read more

Matt Patches, Time Out: There's a Dumbledore, there's a Voldemort, there's a magical MacGuffin that our heroes must track down, but it's a soulless attempt to re-create the Potter magic. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: Though it has flashes of promise, Bones traces the footsteps of its fantasy film predecessors too closely to blaze anything close to an original narrative. Read more

John Oursler, Village Voice: An endless parade of derivative genre tropes, even tedious and convoluted when it dares to break the formula-there may or may not be an incest subplot. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: The action flick is overly long, complicated and, even by teen romance standards, cringe-worthy in its cheesiness. Read more