Cringetown

nad-sickle

score 1/10

I'm not exactly the best critic who spots a terrible actor or bad shot from miles away. Usually, I'm quite an unfussy viewer. Or at least I'd like to think so.

Nevertheless, I do get pretty fussy when someone's taking on one of my favourite series of books and after watching the film and the pilot of the show, I just decided that this series just looks way better in a readers head than on screen. That, or it'll take a seriously talented team of people to give justice to every single aspect of this concept.

If you thought the film was bad, then don't even watch the show because it's like a supermarket brand version of your favourite cereal. Horrible. Now I understand you can't 100% keep the books and that's not the problem here. The major issues with Shadowhunters was that its basic foundation, which would be the cast and the writing was utterly horrible. Actors were all stiff, unable to convey the depth the characters had at all. They all mainly looked like Ken and Barbies given wigs. I have no issues with attractive people but they just... didn't feel right for the role. For example, Simon is this geeky mousey sort of character and what we got was basically a hot guy with amazing cheekbones (hello papi) given a pair of 'geeky glasses'. Jace who is that chip on the shoulder guy with sarcasm as a self-defense mechanism trope just... didn't come across. His deliveries were so dry and bland, not in a good way.

The only notable two actors whom I found to be great on screen was the guy who played Luke and Valentine. I know Alan van Sprang who plays Valentine also played King Henry in Reign so we know he can get into the crazy of the character. Other than these two, the rest of the cast is an absolute bummer.

The writing? Don't get me started. You can't even blame the actors when even the script was bad.

Then there was that bit of the headquatres being filled with people like it was the M16... which is collaterally incorrect to the plot. The only reason Valentine wanted the Mortal Cup was so he could make more Shadowhunters out of people. Now why would he bother making more when it looks like they're tons of them in the headquatres? While I can understand and accept changes to the plot, this change just doesn't make sense.

Suddenly, I feel like we should give the movie a lot more credit. It was done a lot more aesthetically pleasing, with better actors, with better writing. In fact, I didn't even hate the movie as a lot of people did. Sure, it didn't came 100% amazing but I was grateful for all the visuals after re-reading City of Bones at least 5 times. As a fan, I'm fine. Even disappointed that it didn't get continued but alas.

So yeah, it's a big no from me -- especially if you're someone who constantly treats oneself with good television and film. You'd notice how terrible it is within the first five minutes.

nad-sickle 16 January 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3396194/