Review of Artemis Fowl
midlandsmovies • June 8, 2020
Review of Artemis Fowl (2020) Dir. Kenneth Branagh
After nearly 20 years of troubled film development and varied directors and writers attached to the project, Walt Disney Studios brings us an adaptation of Eoin Coulfer’s highly successful Artemis Fowl book series, streaming exclusively on Disney+.
When widowed businessman Artemis Fowl Sr (Colin Farrell) is kidnapped by a mysterious hooded villain, his son Artemis Fowl Jr (Ferdia Shaw) is forced into a journey of discovery surrounding his father’s real occupation and is required to hatch a plan to rescue him from the clutches of evil with the help of his bodyguard Domovoi ‘Dom’ Butler (Nonso Anozie).
Meanwhile, in similar parallel circumstances in the underground fairy world led by Judi Dench’s Commander Julius Root, Officer Holly Short (Lara McDonnell) works to turn around her disgraced father’s reputation after he stole the fairies most powerful resource, the Aculos and was killed.
It’s hard to really explain the plot of this film effectively in simple terms as it is just so full with unnecessary characters and plot lines, that ultimately don’t add anything to the story apart from leave you asking why? It appears that the filmmakers knew that this was going to be a flaw of the film as almost the entire first three quarters of the film is completely based around exposition and explaining to the audience in extreme detail what is happening. Many devices are used for this exposition and none successfully, from Josh Gad’s drawn out voiceovers to Domovoi Butler’s prolonged explanations to Artemis.
Speaking of things being prolonged, despite the film’s relatively short runtime, it drags. This could be due to the predictable narrative archs and clunky dialogue but for a fantasy adventure film it isn’t very adventurous at all. Virtually the entire film is set in one location and I cant help but think the extensive world building is wasted as the audience doesn’t get to experience any of what’s out there.
On paper the cast seem vastly overqualified for a film of this stature, however I wouldn’t say any of the actors provided very impressive performances at all. This again is mostly down to the script that makes all conversations seem very forced and unnatural. One laughably cringe inducing line that particularly pushed me over the edge was Judi Dench exclaiming “top of the morning” as she arrived in Ireland. Furthermore, without wanting to sound too harsh to a young actor, Ferdia Shaw’s portrayal of Artemis was almost as uninteresting as I found the character to be. It came across as amateurish and I could almost see him reciting the lines of the script which took me out of the events unfolding on screen.
The flashy effects will quite possibly keep children entertained however after watching this film it was clear to see why Disney have chosen to dump it onto their streaming service rather than push it’s original theatrical release date back to when cinemas have reopened. It’s a black spot on the list of Disney’s traditionally reliable creations and on Director Kenneth Branagh’s previously impressive filmography. Judging from the criticism of Artemis Fowl, I am doubtful this will turn into the Harry Potter-esque franchise I think it was intended to become.
★★
Jake Evans
Twitter @jake_evans1609
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