Artemis Fowl is a 2020 scifi/fantasy film that focuses on the 12-year-old Artemis Fowl who discovers a secret society of fairies in order to save his father from a mysterious hooded figure.
Nothing makes sense in the film, and it relies so much on exposition to tell its story. The screenplay, written by Conor McPherson and Hamish McColl, is incredibly awful with the way they set up their dull and unconvincing characters. Shaw does try his best as Artemis, but you can easily tell that it’s his feature debut as an actor. As the premise goes on, he starts to become very underdeveloped and uninteresting. No one stands out in the cast, and it’s unfortunate to see both Gad and Dench phoning it in with their performances by doing a very off-putting Batman voice. Some of them over explain things to the audience, which is quite frustrating to sit through. Nothing intriguing happens for the majority of the movie, and you eventually stop caring.
Artemis Fowl is not only the worst film that Branagh has ever directed in his entire career, but it’s also one of the worst Disney films ever made. This is one of those YA novel adaptations that will frustrate both casual moviegoers and hardcore fans of the source material. It doesn’t know what it wants to be, which makes it really boring and convoluted from start to finish. For a movie that revolves around fairies, it does lack a lot of magic. Simply put, it’s a bland and forgettable mess.