Mark Harrington returns to his Irish roots for this week’s Friday Film Review.
This week’s at-home film is “Artemis Fowl”, a new digital release from the Disney Plus App. The long awaited film is based upon the wildly popular fantasy novels by Irish author Eoin Colfer. Spanning eight books which Colfer started writing in 2000-2001, the stories follow the life of a 12 year old criminal mastermind who inherits an illicit empire from his mysterious father but who gradually shifts his moral compass to form an alliance with a fairy underworld to protect both worlds. Sadly, the film immediately and dramatically deviates from the books by jumping to a modified plotline from the second book where Artemis schemes to rescue his father from kidnappers. In the movie, a single kidnapper is an unknown figure from the fairy underworld and Artemis must execute a complicated plan involving the return of a stolen fairy power source and kidnap a fairy of his own. Despite the departure, the film is set up by an incredible cast and crew led by director Kenneth Branagh. Colin Farrell portrays the mysterious father and newcomer Ferdia Shaw has a strong debut as the young Artemis Fowl. Judi Dench plays the gruff commander of the fairies and Lara McDonnell shines as Holly, an eager fairy member of the Lower Elements Police reconnaissance (LEPrecon). Josh Gad provides the film’s minimal humor as a gigantic dwarf Mulch Diggums.
Plot deviation aside, the even bigger problem with this film is director Kenneth Branagh made a noble but ultimately fatally flawed choice to introduce the lead character in a more contemporary manner so young audiences would more quickly identify with Artemis Fowl. In doing so, Branagh strayed from his core principal that produced a brilliant career from Shakespeare to Thor to Agatha Christie – he deprived a learned audience’s ability “to hear the play.” While these brilliant actors, old and new, capture the spirit of the books- ultimately they deliver a story devoid of the original characters. The end product produces no trace of the conflicting moral complexity and change in the young Artemis as he struggles through the consequences of plans gone wrong. Put simply, nothing goes wrong in round one and only a contrived ending force feeds the criminal element back into a typical Disney hero plot line which otherwise morphed Artemis into a simple version of “Lara Croft- Tomb Raider”.
So, on my alternative surf is not up rating system, “Artemis Fowl” earns my intermediate Boogie Board wave rating. A great cast, beautiful cinematography, and elegant direction by Kenneth Branagh save this curious departure from its beloved source material from absolutely wiping out. Pre-teens who have not read the books will enjoy the movie more than “Spy Kids”, and the mere 95 minute running time is great for those with short attention spans, but I would have willingly endured another 30 minutes for larger doses of magic and consequences of adolescence.
“Artemis Fowl” is rated PG for Irish tales, goblin prison violence, and criminal looting justified by a 12 year old with a god complex and a plan- which I guess is better than a 74 year old POTUS with a god complex and no plan.
For KPCW’s Friday Film Review, my name is Mark Harrington and it’s been 221 days since my last drink in Hawaii and 449 days since my last drink in Ireland.
