Probably should have just made it a Disney Plus series. Movies try to fit too many books into one film.
Though, you’re better off just listening to the Richard Roeper review. This movie really isn’t deserving of only 14% good reviews.
It is nice to get a Summer movie at home. Artemis Fowl isn’t as magical as a Harry Potter movie. It is a nice present to enjoy at home. When you can’t go to theaters though.
I can’t say Artemis Fowl is bad or as bad as a movie that has gotten 14% good reviews. There’s more story than a Bayforners film.
If you think about it, what classic Fantasy from the 80’s did critics actually like ? So why listen to people who hated the Labyrinth, Return to Oz, Willow, The Neverending Story....
Artemis isn’t as memorable as any movie I just mentioned. However it has some charm and better than a weaker Disney Fantasy, A Wrinkle in Time.
Performances wise. Josh Gad and
Lara McDonnell are the only ones who stand out. Well, not just because Gad borrowed Hagrid’s look. Lara McDonnell makes a charming fairy.
Ferdia Shaw is the least interesting and he is Artemis. Since I wasn’t sure if he was actually trying or not. He also doesn’t really get much to do.

It seems like they did a lot to set up the franchise for future films, but failed to include key parts from the books.

The film failed to show the "criminal" and "mastermind" parts of Artemis Fowl. He's supposed to be broken from his mentally ill mother, but she had already died long before the start of the film. His father is in the picture in the film and tells him pretty much everything. Aside from primary school and antiquity knowledge, you can't really see how smart he is because every piece of knowledge is handed to him by his father. In the books, he does everything on his own because he's a genius.

It also failed to show his obsession with becoming more rich. In the books, he demanded gold in exchange for Holly, but instead he wanted them to work together to save his father? The criminal and mastermind thing about the boy is how he finds the existence of this other world and manipulates them into giving him gold.

They introduced some fairy rules, but didn't go into any detail...

They completely didn't explain surviving the time stop. That moment in the book was the climax. All life was to be wiped out, but Artemis & friends survives -- how?? The film didn't even mention this.

Juliet is Butler's niece... making that bond weaker than a brother-sister bond. Who really cares about their niece that much? It was more like "oh crap I gotta protect her or my sibling is gonna kill me."
They also revealed Butler's first name immediately... the reveal of his first name was a sacred and an important moment in the books.

Holly and Artemis' relationship... I think they sort of did okay with this. They showed some humanity in Holly throughout the film so that it wasn't unbelievable that she'd trust Artemis. Even though in book 1, their relationship is really captor-victim and Artemis is pretty cruel to her.

Some practical effects were really cool, but some of the CGI was weird. The goblins were well done.

Mulch was probably the best part.

They spent like 20 minutes on the troll scene when they could have added some more scenes to flesh out everything.

Maybe it's fun for the little kids, but the reason why the Artemis Fowl series is so good is because Artemis is a manipulative, genius arsehole that will do anything to get what he wants. He'll play you like a fool and make you do his bidding regardless if you come from a completely different world with insanely advanced technology. This film makes Artemis Fowl just another kid who is kinda smart and was born into the right family to eventually become the "chosen one."

I know I shouldn't be comparing it to the books, but I think they really failed at even establishing the character of Artemis Fowl. They changed parts of the character that just made him... not Artemis Fowl.
It's sad that this film was 20 years in the making and this is what was created. Hopefully someone comes along in 10 years to make a better one.

Rubbish.

There's really not anything good about 'Artemis Fowl', except for the decent score perhaps. The premise is terrible and poorly told, not helped by the fact it takes itself pretty seriously for much of the 95 minute run time. The pacing is off, while the effects are meh.

The cast don't work any wonders. Nothing personal against Ferdia Shaw but he isn't good in the lead role, I thought his age-mate Lara McDonnell did alright as Holly though. I like Josh Gad but his role here is bad, his narration is particularly ropey. Judi Dench's Julius is irritating too, while Colin Farrell and Nonso Anozie are underused.

A big misfire, unfortunately. Not the worst film I've ever seen though. They openly set up a sequel at the end, which I'd imagine won't be happening given the reaction to this - a situation like 2007's 'The Golden Compass' potentially.

I thought Ferdia Shaw did fine as the eponymous character here. Sadly, the rest of it falls well short. He's the son of his namesake father who lives amidst the grandeur of "Fowl Manor" assisted by "Dom" (Nonso Anozie). His dad (Colin Farrell) regularly heads off on long, mysterious, trips and it is whilst on one such journey that the young man is issued with an ultimatum or face never seeing his pa again. An all-powerful gizmo must be found and it's in their house somewhere. Can he find it in time? Turns out that he isn't the only person looking for it. It was originally stolen from the fairies and so the pointy-eared, menacing, "Commander Root" (Dame Judi Dench) has despatched "Short" (an engaging effort from Lara McDonnell) to seek it out and retrieve it. Though the visual effects are lively enough, the adaptation of the story here is all a bit of a mess. The narration (Josh Gad) is little short of irritating; Dame Judi (and her seriously ropey Irish accent) just doesn't work at all well and the pace of the thing is all just too messy and rushed. We never really get to know any of the folks here, nor have much chance to explore the underlying mythology that gave the book that added spice. It's not terrible, and for younger kids might just have enough pyrotechnics and colour to divert complete boredom, but given the resources available for this film, it's really little better than a shallow CGI-fest that really doesn't do Sir Kenneth Branagh much credit at all.

In today’s lecture titled “When Disney Films Go Wrong,” I present “Artemis Fowl,” a wholly unredeemable mess of a movie from director Kenneth Branagh. The studio dumped this trash heap on Disney+, and even the home streaming platform is far more than it deserves. There’s very little magic in this CGI-heavy family film, and it’s more of a yawn-fest than the engrossing adventure it obviously aspired to be.

Based on the first two books in author Eoin Colfer’s wildly popular children’s fantasy series, “Artemis Fowl” tells the ho-hum story of adolescent criminal genius Artemis (Ferdia Shaw), an annoying kid who captures vicious fairy Holly Short (Lara McDonnell) at her underground world in an attempt to harness the magical powers needed to rescue his dad (Colin Farrell). There isn’t much more to the plot than this, and the whole thing reeks of a grossly subpar “Harry Potter” rip-off. Even the story’s narrator, the oversized dwarf Mulch Diggums (Josh Gad), is a dead ringer for Hagrid.

The cast ranges from irritating and distracting (Shaw, McDonnell) to really talented actors who probably should’ve known better than to accept their roles for a Disney payday (Farrell, Gad, Judi Dench).

The movie gets progressively worse as it sputters along and, just when you think the film can’t sink any lower, a fabulously “wtf?!?” scene arrives where Diggums unhinges his jaw, scoops up dirt at a rapid pace, and poops it right on out of his rear end.

To be honest, I’d rather have watched that scene on a loop for the full 94 minutes rather than this substandard junk.