Bones is Buffy Potter

MOVIE

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Lily Collins, Lena Headey, Johnathan Rhys Meyers

M, in cinemas now

This first instalment based on Cassandra Clare’s hit young adult fantasy series is so unashamedly derivative it could have been called The Twilight of Buffy Potter.

Indeed, for those who might have wandered into the wrong cinema, the most fun in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is in picking which character or which part of the plot has been borrowed from which other fantasy series.

The second most fun is imagining the likes of Stephenie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, Joss Whedon and George Lucas dialling their respective copyright lawyers.

For fans of the teen-lit series, which seem to be impressionable, hormonal young women and their mothers, this pretty, flashy, noisy adaptation is all style, no substance and so lightweight it is in danger of disappearing.