Artemis Fowl (2020)

Artemis Fowl (Dir: Kenneth Branagh, 2020). 

Sci-fi actioner based upon the best selling series of YA books by Eoin Colfer. 

When his criminal mastermind father is kidnapped, 12 year old Artemis Foul (Ferdia Shaw) must secure the Aculos, a magical fairy device of immense power, in order to buy his father's freedom. Along for the ride are butler Dom (Nonso Anozie), fairy cop (Lara McDonnell) and giant dwarf Mulch Diggums (Josh Gad) who has the downright freaky ability of unhinging his jaw, digging with his mouth and shooting the dirt from his backside. Big names in small roles include Colin Farrell as Fowl Sr and Judi Dench as some kind of ancient elf commander in chief. 

Pre-worldwide pandemic, Disney’s big summer hopeful was scheduled for release in May 2020. With movie theatres closed for the duration, it has instead joined other big studio releases DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World Tour (Walt Dohrn, 2020) and Warner's Scoob! (Tony Cervone, 2020) in bypassing cinemas and heading straight to streaming. Rather than the rental route taken by Trolls and Scoob!, Disney have released Artemis Fowl exclusively to its in-house subscription service Disney+; making its worldwide debut on 12th June. 

A lot of people work hard on a movie and I am sure nobody sets out to do a bad job. Many talented performers, artists and technicians spent many hours bringing Artemis Fowl to the screen and their efforts are to be admired. However, politeness aside for a moment, the movie is a bit of a mess. But it is by no means unwatchable. 

I greatly admire the work of  Kenneth Branagh. From Shakespeare to superheroes he has proved himself a talented, versatile director. Having previously brought to the screen successful tentpole pictures such as Thor (K Branagh, 2011) and Cinderella (K Branagh, 2015), one would expect him to deliver the goods with Artemis Fowl. Indeed the movie looks good, the action rarely flags and it employs some decent performers. Yet as a whole it doesn't really gel. It's likeable enough, but a $125 million budget summer blockbuster, as this was intended to be, should be more than merely likeable.

For those, like myself, unfamiliar with the novels, the mix of fairytale whimsy and sci-fi spectacle will seems frankly odd, while the toing and froing between real world Ireland and fantasy Haven City is somewhat jarring. The tone of the movie is all over the place with evidence of cutting all too apparent. Early trailers offer a glimpse of elaborate visual effects sequences which are nowhere to be seen in the finished film and one suspects that part of the problem may stem from a messy edit. Much of the characterisation is, sadly, rather week. Rather than the more ambiguous anti-hero of the novels, Artemis here is a clean-cut, cool surfer dude. The relationship between father and son is barely established before Dad's disappearance and we never really understand what motivates the bad guy. Were the movie particularly original, some of its faults could be more forgiven. Ultimately, its biggest problem is an overriding atmosphere of seen it before, seen it done better before. 

Of the cast, Ferdia Shaw makes a personable debut as Artemis while Lara McDonnell impresses as fairy Holly Short. The heavyweight adult cast of Judi Dench, Colin Farrel and Josh Gad are a largely underused, although much of their performances likely ended up on the cutting room floor. Standout for me was Nonso Anozie as the Fowls' faithfully servant/bodyguard Dom. Azonie and Shaw share some nice scenes as the butler mentors young Fowl.

It is fair to speculate that Disney were cutting their losses by releasing the movie straight to the home market. With its original release already delayed from summer 2019, I imagine there were legitimate concerns it would suffer the same fate as the studios' other recent ambitious but under performing sci-fi fantasies Tomorrowland (Brad Bird, 2015) and A Wrinkle in Time (Ava DuVernay, 2018). A Disney+ releases both provides the service with exclusive content while distancing the studio from a box office bomb. 

At around 90 minutes Artemis Fowl is a short movie with a narrative that is simultaneously underdeveloped and overly complex. Worth a look if you are already a Disney+ subscriber. But with changes made to the original concept, it is likely to be a movie unsatisfactory for fans of the book and a little overwhelming for newcomers. Clearly designed as a franchise opener, the finale is open-ended. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath for Artemis Fowl 2.