Movie Review - Artemis Fowl

So I found something quite interesting after watching this film. While Disney do very well on their animated films (well except for those character driven ones with its name being very misleading) as far as adaptations of books and literature are concerned, the live action ones don't do as well. For years Disney have tried and failed to latch onto the success Warner Bros. has had on their Harry Potter and Middle-Earth films. They want to make a film franchise based on a beloved series of children's books and yet every time they try, they either leave it as just one film or make a few and then abandon the project completely. But it's hard to imagine that for a company that helped create a cinematic universe full of beloved comic book characters and changed another universe in a galaxy far far away, they just keep failing at making a film franchise based on a series of books. But here we are with their latest attempt and one that is pretty much doomed to fail due to it being released on Disney+ rather than in cinemas due to current events (at the time of writing this). So let's see what we get from this one:

Based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Irish author Eoin Colfer, this film follows the adventures of one Artemis Fowl II (played by Ferdia Shaw) who is a 12 year old Irish prodigy. When his father (played by Colin Farrell) is kidnapped by an evil fairy who is wanting to reclaim an item from the Fowl household, Artemis forms an alliance with his butler Dom (played by Nonso Anozie), his best friend Juilet (played by Tamara Smart) to help get him back. But in order to do this, they capture a fairy called Holly (played by Lara McDonnell) and manage to lure another fairy called Mulch (played by Olaf himself, Josh Gad) to his cause. Though this leads into a series of events that will no doubt leave many of us puzzled and wonder why Judi Dench, an otherwise beloved actress, wound up in this mess of a film.

This film had a lot of promise and should have in every way be better than it was. But development hell, juggling between studios and a certain sexual harassment case had it end up be the way that it is. A mess that will confuse those who didn't read the book and anger fans of the book. Not to mention that it was implied at the end that this isn't the one and only film. But to be honest, it probably will be. But anyway, give it a watch if you want. But don't expect it to be as great as the trailers made it out to be. Also while I acknowledge that current events have forced Disney to make the decision to release it on Disney+, you don't do that to a film that is supposed to start a series of films. Because doing that makes it doomed from the start. But again current events have caused it to go that way. So overall, not a great film but some may still find some enjoyment out of it if any. 6/10