The past decade has been pretty interesting when it comes to movie adaptations of books aimed at the 15-and-under crowd. First Harry Potter built a franchise around the idea of the viewers growing up alongside the characters and the actors portraying them. Then, in the final quarter of the Potter films, Twilight came along, trying to tap into the same audience who loved Potter and was deep into reading young adult novels at that point. Now, with both Harry Potter and Twilight over, movie studios are clearly scrambling to try and find the next big young adult franchise based on a book. This year we’ve got two attempts at the next big thing in the form of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Beautiful Creatures. Honestly, I can’t say as either of these really appeal to me that much. In fact, I think both movies look kinda of tacky in terms of the production values and special effects. But who knows, maybe one of these will turn out to be a winner. If I had to guess, my money would be on City of Bones.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones comes out August 23, 2013. Beautiful Creatures comes out February 14, 2013.