Artemis Fowl

Without Branagh this movie would be a total failure. Now it is just a failure. The action scenes are alright. The CGI is OK, it makes sense. What is worse is the fact that even though I read the Artemis Fowl books as a child, in this movie I wasn’t able to stand the arrogance of the 12 year old idiot of the main character. Already in the first scene I would really like to slap him and from that point it just goes on. It is an attempt to create a new fantasy series like Harry Potter, but while Chris Columbus was able to make all the children characters likable, Kenneth Branagh made Artemis into a boy you hate and wish him all the worst already in the first minute. (08/10/2020)

The attempt to start a new family fantasy franchise turned out to be a directorially mismanaged mess. Artemis Fowl starts blackmailing fairies to rescue his kidnapped father, and you'll be hoping he succeeds soon enough to shut it down. The film looks more or less average, but unfortunately it's full of lifeless and nonsensical characters, with their personalities from the ground up maybe three times in a single scene, and the whole thing makes virtually no sense. But at least it's short. (06/13/2020)

It is unfortunate when a film is named after the protagonist, who then turns out to be the least interesting character of all. It’s a shame, because Artemis Fowl had huge potential; the books and comics were very good, but the best part of them, Artemis himself, did not succeed in crossing over to film. In the books he is the child equivalent of the most cunning Bond villain, in the movie he is little more than an unpleasant boy. That’s about it. No matter how hard Kenneth Branagh and Patrick Doyle try, no matter how good the other actors are, Artemis simply did not work out. However, it is fair to say that it definitely wasn’t as terrible as some viewers outside of the target audience believe. (08/10/2020)

Artemis Fowl reminded me in many ways of Arthur and the Invisibles, which was qualitatively a little better. Kennet Branagh's latest film offers a few interesting plot moments (the time capsule), but the rather bizarre scenes predominate, all wrapped up in an unpleasantly chaotic script. I found the protagonist exceedingly unlikeable (I'm not a fan of too-clever kids who like to show off), while the villain lacked charisma (and space, for that matter). The other characters didn't interest me in any way either. The two exceptions were Mulch Diggums, who was hilariously weird, and Commander Root, although I found the casting of Judi Dench a bit off. In the end, it's a very odd piece that at times lacks any sense and feels terribly stilted. A weaker two stars! (07/01/2020)