On April 26, 2001, a new kid’s favorite book was published. Eoin Colfer’s newest book Artemis Fowl hit the streets and became a fan favorite quickly. Nineteen years later a new movie hit Disney +’s platform on May 29, 2020. The famous book series had been turned into a movie and everyone was beyond psyched to see if it would be anything like they pictured. Unfortunately for them, the movie did not meet the standards that the book had led its fans to expect. Using the beautiful scenery of Ireland and an amazing cast consisting of actors Ferdia Shaw, Lara McDonnell, Josh Gad, Colin Ferell, Judi Dench and many more the movie was half decent but it did not show the excitement and fun factor that was shown in the movies trailer. 

The film opens up with a view of the ocean leading up to Fowl manner before crossing over to what appears to be news reporters as they report about an unknown source. The film moves over to the beginning of an interrogation where Mulch Diggums (played by Josh Gad) begins to tell the story of how he came to be where he is now. The movie then proceeds to show young Artemis Fowl’s journey of discovering his family’s history and how he can save his father from the movie’s villain Opal Koboi. 

Most movies have different scenery and they have different locations. In Disney’s version of Artemis Fowl, the whole movie took place in Ireland. However, it didn’t even consist of different places in Ireland. The majority of the movie took place at Fowl Manner or places around it such as the ocean, or open space, even parts of the lighthouse and a scene at the school. Yes, there were glimpses of different realms and different places of course. The viewer gets to see the fairy realm and the place that his dad is captured along with the location of Mulches interrogation. However, there is no wow factor to it. There’s no oh no you can’t go in there like somebody will experience while watching Harry Potter. There’s no “no why are you going in there are you crazy?” that someone will shout while watching a horror movie. There’s not even the response of “why did you do that?”. The whole movie consisted of showing the same few rooms over and over again. Disney could’ve at least made it more interesting to the point where Artemis could’ve had to travel all over the place in order to find the item needed to save his father. He could’ve traveled all over the place like he does in the book. I have to say that I was very disappointed in the lack of suspense factors and excitement throughout the movie. 

Another annoying part about the movie was that it wasn’t even told through Artemis’s eyes. It was told through Mulches perspective. Although a cool twist to the movie it still could’ve been better if told through Artemis’s eyes. How did he feel about the whole thing? All you saw was a brilliant mastermind planning everything out. There was no him telling the story, no showing him how he figured everything out, how he knew where the Aculous was from the start. Because of that factor, the movie felt like it had no storyline and no plot. Don’t get me wrong I loved Mulch. If anything he was my favorite character and it would be pretty easy to say that Josh Gad carried the whole movie on his back by using comedy and funny remarks. Him telling the story was cool and was entertaining. It brought a little bit more life to the story however, the movie still lacked a storyline. Disney could’ve done better with the storyline for sure. They have hundreds of movies on their brand name and yet they come out with a new movie to a hit series and they tear the movie apart. First of all, it’s nothing like the book at all. No similarities whatsoever, second of all the characters are nothing like what people grew up reading and picturing but in fact the exact opposite. Lastly, there was no storyline. Although there was conflict the storyline felt like it didn’t exist and that it’ self brought the whole movie downhill. 

This film was very creative but it lacked so much to the point that when it ended a viewer could easily look at a friend or family member and say “that was a very crappy movie.” and the other person would agree. Rotten Tomatoes even commented on the film saying “A would-be franchise-starter that will anger fans of the source material and leave newcomers befuddled, Artemis Fowl is frustratingly flightless.” with lots of other reviews including ones from Variety (variety.com) who stated “What a waste. Screenwriters Conor McPherson and Hamish McColl have taken a not-very-good book and turned it into a downright awful movie” in their review of the movie it is pretty clear that this movie did not hit the expectations of viewers and fans of the book series. 

Disney did not ace this movie whatsoever and as a huge Disney fan, I have to say that I was terribly disappointed in this movie. I would not recommend this movie if you are looking for a good family movie to watch and enjoy. Disney was smart by making it easy to stream due to COVID-19 and movie theatres being closed but they lost so many aspects of the movie that needed to be in there making the movie feel more like a movie that could put you to sleep compared to a movie that can keep you on the edge of your seat.