Thanks in large part to the massive critical and financial
success that Warner Bros has achieved through the Harry Potter franchise,
we’ve seen plenty of attempts at film franchises based on other popular young
adult novels. And yet, the results have generally varied when it comes to their
attempts to become the next Potter. In other words, while franchises
like The Hunger Games and Twilight managed to see their stories
told to completion, others like His Dark Materials and The Mortal
Instruments basically crashed and burned right at the start, thus failing
to spawn their potential franchises. But now we’ve come to the latest attempt
at a film franchise based on a YA novel with Artemis Fowl. It all began
with the 2001 fantasy novel of the same name written by Irish author Eoin
Colfer, which introduced readers to the titular Artemis Fowl II, a 12-year-old
prodigy who runs his family’s long-standing criminal empire. Upon publication,
it did quite well with both critics and audiences and would be followed by seven
sequels that were released up until 2012 as well as a few spin-offs. But as for
a potential film adaptation of the franchise… it took a little longer to make
that a reality. Plans for this adaptation go back as far as 2001, the same year
that the first novel was released, but it ended up in development hell for at
least more than a decade until 2015, when the one and only Kenneth Branagh was
announced as its director. It was originally set for an August 2019 release but
was then pushed back to May 2020, presumably due to Disney’s efforts to manage
the newest additions to their release schedule that came courtesy of their
recent purchasing of 20th Century Fox. But, as you might have
guessed… then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced Disney to cancel its
theatrical release and instead have it debut on Disney+. And while I’m
well-aware of the incredibly notorious reputation that this film has garnered
amongst fans of the franchise from an adaptational perspective, I’d say that it
still manages to be a decently entertaining fantasy flick.
Artemis Fowl II (Ferdia Shaw) is a 12-year old genius who lives
with his father, Artemis I (Colin Farrell), at their prestigious manor off the
coast of Ireland but is emotionally burdened by his father’s frequent trips
that he never talks about. But then, on one fateful day, Artemis Sr. suddenly
disappears, and thanks to the extensive media coverage of this incident, Artemis
is distressed to discover that his dad has been linked to the thefts of some of
the most famous artifacts in the world. And if that wasn’t enough, Artemis gets
a message from a mysterious figure named Opal Koboi (voiced by an uncredited
Hong Chau and physically portrayed by Emily Brockmann, Jessica Rhodes, and
Charlie Cameron) who reveals that she has kidnapped his father, who had stolen
a powerful artifact from her known as the Aculos. Artemis’ loyal bodyguard
Domovoi ‘Dom’ Butler (Nonso Anozie) then proceeds to inform him that his father,
like his ancestors before him, has spent several years documenting the
existence of magical creatures. And as it turns out, a whole universe of these
creatures exists underground in a place known as Haven City. Thus, with only
three days to find the Aculos and save his father from Opal, Artemis and Butler
enact a plan that sees them capture Holly Short (Lara McDonnell), an elven
fairy and member of Haven City’s Lower Elements Police reconnaissance squad
(AKA LEPrecon). Holly also happens to be the daughter of Beechwood Short, who
is revealed to have been the one who had originally stolen the Aculos for
Artemis’ dad despite this resulting in him being deemed a traitor by LEPrecon. Naturally,
Holly’s capture attracts the attention of LEPrecon as her superior, Commander
Root (Judi Dench), launches a full-scale assault on the Fowl estate to rescue
her, completely unaware that this is all part of Artemis’ ingenious scheme to stop
the evil being that threatens to destroy both the human world and the magical
world.
Right off the bat, the first thing to note about this film
is that, in several places, it differs quite a bit from its source material.
While the main plot of Artemis kidnapping Holly Short and incurring the wrath
of LEPrecon is the same as it was in the book, the set-up behind it isn’t.
Instead of being part of his quest to find a powerful magical artifact and
rescue his father from Opal Koboi (who, in the books, didn’t appear until the
second installment, Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident), the book saw him
do this simply to collect a massive reward to recoup his family’s fortune. There
was also a key emotional subplot regarding Artemis’ mother, which is absent in
the film as it’s established that she died sometime prior. So, in other words, it
seems like the biggest difference between the film and the book is that the
former makes a considerable effort to tone down Artemis’ ‘criminal mastermind’
persona so that he doesn’t come off as an unlikable villain. And yet, based on
what I’ve seen from fans of the franchise, it’s safe to say that Artemis’
traditional characterization was never an issue for them, and as you might have
guessed, they aren’t too happy with all these narrative and character-based changes.
However, what fascinates me the most about this film is how surprisingly modest
it is when it comes to one of the biggest aspects of any potential franchise
starter, world-building. While it does set up the world of Haven City and the
creatures that inhabit it, it doesn’t spend a lot of time there, instead
focusing more on Artemis’ clash with LEPrecon at his family’s mansion. Granted,
this does result in a rather unique ‘bottle episode’ of a story that’s often been
described by Eoin Colfer as a ‘fantasy version of Die Hard’, but it
still would’ve benefitted from a greater focus on the magical world of Haven
City. To be fair, though, this is probably another consequence of the film’s
major changes, especially since films usually don’t get the same amount of time
that books get when it comes to setting up their unique settings and their eclectic
casts of characters.
Despite this, however, the film fares a lot better in other aspects
of its production, which I primarily attribute to Kenneth Branagh’s traditionally
solid direction. While action sequences are still far from being Branagh’s strongest
suit as a director, the film does boast some nice production design, especially
for the fantastical world of Haven City. And thanks to its breezy 95-minute
runtime, its pacing is generally decent throughout even if it does sometimes come
at the cost of story and character development. It also sports a solid cast that,
even with some big names like Judi Dench and Josh Gad to headline the ensemble,
primarily lets newcomers Ferdia Shaw and Lara McDonnell have their time to
shine in the lead roles of Artemis and Holly, respectively. And overall, these
two do manage to hold their own against their famous co-stars even when taking
the changes to their characters into account. Obviously, Artemis is the most
radically different compared to his book counterpart, but Ferdia Shaw still
manages to do a nice job in maintaining Artemis’ persona of a kid who’s very
much wise beyond his years. Again, it may be a far cry from how the character
is portrayed in the book, but it works fine enough for this specific take on
the story. The same goes for Lara McDonnell as Holly Short, who arguably fares
a bit better than Artemis does when it comes to withstanding the changes to her
character since they’re more story-based than character-based. As for their
co-stars, Judi Dench is her usual dignified self as a gender-swapped Commander Root
(and yes, that’s the second time in a row that she’s played a character like
that) while Nonso Anozie, who’s quickly becoming a Branagh regular, continues
to showcase his talents as a top-notch supporting player as Butler. But as for
the biggest standout of the film, that honor goes to Josh Gad as Mulch Diggums,
an ‘oversized dwarf’ and kleptomaniac that LEPrecon brings in to aid in their attack
on Fowl Manor. As you might have guessed, he ends up being the film’s best
source of comic relief.
In conclusion, I should probably note that when it comes to
the YA-oriented novels that I read when I was growing up, Artemis Fowl
wasn’t really a part of that group. Instead, it was headlined by the likes of Hunger
Games, Percy Jackson, and of course, Harry Potter. My family
did own copies of the first two installments of Artemis Fowl… but I’ll
freely admit that I only got a few chapters into the first book before putting
it down. For reasons that I simply can’t explain, it just didn’t click with me the
same way that something like Harry Potter did even though fantasy is
very much one of my favorite genres. As such, I went into this film as a
complete newcomer which, given what I’ve learned about all its controversial
changes, was probably for the best. While Artemis Fowl does maintain the
general plot synopsis of its source material, it isn’t as faithful when it comes
to how that plot comes together. But while fans won’t be the least
bit happy with how radically different it is when compared to the book, Artemis
Fowl manages to be a decent little fantasy flick even if it is rather
hindered by being a bit too simple-plotted for a supposed franchise starter. While
most have focused on how much it deviates from the source material, I’m more
fascinated by how it ends up being surprisingly light on world-building since
it doesn’t spend as much time as it could’ve in the underground world of Haven
City. Simply put, the first installments of other franchises based on YA novels
have done a far better job when it comes to that sort of thing since that’s usually
what’s expected from them. Ultimately, though, while it’s far from being
a masterpiece, it manages to get by thanks in large part to its solid cast.
However, I think it’s safe to say that its fate as a Disney+ release means that
we probably won’t be seeing any sequels. To be fair, though, I have the feeling
that if this film was released in theaters as originally intended… its poor reception
would’ve easily led to it becoming one of the year’s big box-office bombs.
Rating: 3.5/5
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