Review of Artemis Fowl (2020) by The_Man_Xx — 22 Jun 2020

This movie was just strange, when I saw the overwhelmingly negative reviews I thought I would hate this movie when I watched it but I don't. Yes it's a bad movie but almost everything about it was strange.

Let's start of with the good. Well Lara McDonnell gave a decent performance as Holly Short, her character had an underdeveloped plot but I liked her performance in the movie. I know i'm in the minority in this but I mostly liked Josh Gad in this movie, yes the narration was unneeded, the grouchy voice was annoying (it's even addressed in the movie) and some of the scenes involving his CGI use was horrible but I enjoyed the charisma and witt he brought in the movie. He played as a tall dwarf and he looked like the only one having fun in that movie so yeah Josh Gad was a silver lining.

The concept and potential was there and interesting as well, the first act was not that bad as you are introduced to the other worlds of Artemis Fowl like the fairy kingdom was an interesting concept and the CGI was decent early in the movie too but that potential was never realized. Being a Kenneth Branagh movie some shots looked nice and well directed AT TIMES with some decent set pieces here and there.

Now the Bad. Ferdia Shaw who played Artemis Fowl had a hammy performance throughout the movie, at times he seemed too monotone and stoic and the other he seemed to be over-acting, it wasn't a terrible performance as he got a lot better during the third act but that was one of the many problems of the movie. Another problem was how scenes seemed to be stitched together and all over the place. Not to give anything away but the majority of the movie takes place in a House.

The runtime is 1hr 30 minutes and it seems some scenes were removed and the pacing was too fast and dodgy as you're not given time to fully flesh out characters and the runtime is just filled with exposition and world building but you're never given time to care about the characters or the plot. Judy Dench also gave a weird performance with a grouchy voice, The CGI got bad real fast and this is a big budget movie mind you especially with some bad action sequences.

The heist aspect of the movie took a backseat as most of it was explained through narration which took away any thrill or suspense. The villain was awful as he/she has a generic motivation to take over the world and I don't mind that but there is no backstory or any reason to be invested in the villain so it just ends up being generic movie bad guy 101 oh and he/she has a grouchy voice, I have no idea why this movie had an obsession with grouchy voices.

Colin Farrell as Artemis' father had the potential to be an interesting character but as soon as you're introduced to him, he is immediately gone. The adventure aspect is also poorly executed and the way how the main conflict is resolved is just baffling. Like I said the whole movie was strange, Also some scenes drag on and we are talking about a 1hr 30 minute movie here and the story never goes to interesting places and again you never care for the characters. So overall, didn't hate his movie, but it's not a good movie by any means.