ARTEMIS FOWL (2020)
Okay, so this movie was due for a big release in 2020, but with everything that went on, and is going on, it ended up on their Disney + streaming service instead. That service at the time was $6.99 a month and this movie was put on there for no extra charge. That move right there, tells you they didn’t believe in the project (at least not fully). I never read the books, so I really didn’t have the burden of expectations that I always ware anyone reading this about. As a rule, the book is not the movie. The movie is not the book. Both may have the same name, but that is ALL you should ever expect. Movies based on books especially in the fantasy realm have very very little idea what you thought was happening in your head, when you read the book. So NEVER EVER, expect them to be the same. The “movie fan” part of your life will improve drastically, if you understand these simple concepts. They are not 100% steadfast rules, but they are pretty close to 99% accurate.
This movie is basically about a kid whose dad has disappeared. He’s like ridiculously rich and has decided freakin fairies are going to be able to help him find his dad. Yep, that’s the plot in a nutshell. The fairies have a really complicated system of keeping people from finding them. One of the cooler fairies Holly Short (played by Lara McDonnell who’s been in almost nothing, but has a bright future) is trying to restore her job with the L.E.P. after making a mistake. The L.E.P. is like the fairy police (Lower Elements Police). Commander Root (played by Judi Dench) allows her to go catch a troll, but isn’t allowed to go to the “surface”. She ends up caught by Artemis who wants help and that is kinda where this story gets going. It should also be noted that all the fairies in this movie are pretty normal sized. They aren’t tiny like in SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN.
Effects wise the CGI is pretty good but the movies budget was reported $125 million. For comparison, it cost Disney $200 million to produce MULAN. Unfortunately that is where it stops regarding what is impressive about this movie. The acting is flat, Artemis (played by Ferdia Shaw) isn’t likeable or remotely interesting. The only characters that shine a bit are Commander Root and Holly. I wasn’t really even crazy about Josh Gad as Mulch Diggums and that is pretty rare. I usually like any character Josh Gad plays at least a little. On top of all this the plot itself really didn’t bring me into this world wanting to see more.
Whenever something gets just totally trashed, I am always looking to find what’s good about it, but sadly this movie just didn’t cut it. That is part of why it took me so long to get to the review. It just didn’t excite me or make me want to revisit it. What I can say is that this is one of those movies that actually might be improved in time as the characters develop and the series moves forward. I also hope that someone gives all of the young actors and actresses in this a shot at something else. I give ARTEMIS FOWL a 2 out of 7.
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