Anyone watch this mess?

I loved the book series when I was younger. They could not have done a worse job adapting a pretty great story. They didn't even attempt to keep the story or characters the same.

My 10yo daughter said, "the movie was OK if you don't care at all about character development"

Having not read any of the books my household was completely confused over what we were watching..

Afterwards I was even more confused at the idea that Disney was on course to release that into theaters.....

Background:
I watched the movie last night. I have never read the books and had no idea what the story was about. I went into the movie with a sense of, "This could be a good little movie." Especially with the cast and the fact that it's a beloved book series. I figured the books must be good and they will need to pay it homage.

Thoughts on Movie:
I would give it a '5' out of 10 rating. And that's mainly because I like story/world building, from an acting and plot angle, I was not impressed. Didn't feel like there was an Act One, or if there was it was about 5 minutes long. Not build up of suspense or mystery. It definitely fell short especially with Josh Gad, Judi Dench, and Colin Farrell starring. I'm sure kids aged 5-10 might enjoy it.

I think I spent half of it wondering how Dench got drug into this...

And the other half wondering why half the cast was using their best Batman voice

Daveintx said:

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And the other half wondering why half the cast was using their best Batman voice

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No joke! Very distracting

I could not tell you a single thing that happened in the movie. That's how uninteresting it was. I don't know anything about the books, but I feel like the main kid didn't hit the mark of what the character might have been. My fiance read and loved the books, but didn't enjoy the movie at all.

Daveintx said:

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I think I spent half of it wondering how Dench got drug into this...

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^ This was her movie role prior to this movie. She really needs to beat her agent over the head with her Oscar...

J-Quob said:

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I could not tell you a single thing that happened in the movie. That's how uninteresting it was. I don't know anything about the books, but I feel like the main kid didn't hit the mark of what the character might have been. My fiance read and loved the books, but didn't enjoy the movie at all.

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Books were great. Easily the best young adult series outside of Harry Potter in the early 2000s. Fairly mature as well. This was the typical Hollywood screw job on great source material.

Kids and I thought it was alright, but very all over the place.

We had never read or heard of the books.

Issues:
- Sets up the is he a thief or not question and then basically ignores it the entire movie. The Artemis ends the movie with his "I'm a master criminal" line and it's like "Are you though? I have no idea because it was never addressed. Seems like the entire movie proved you were a good guy."

- Definitely abandoned any character development in favor of action.

- The kid they picked to play Artemis had all the charisma of a 2x4. Oof! Kids and I thought maybe that was supposed to be his character? So smart he's a robot? But that didn't seem to fit the genealogy since his dad is played by a guy I think is almost universally thought to be charming. The kid looked good but was not the worlds best actor.

- I realize it's a series but they left way to many questions just floating around.

My 11-year-old boys haven't read the books, but watched this. They said it's very cliche, which is a damning critique coming from people that young, since their whole media landscape is just that.

I hope it doesn't put them off on the books, since I keep hearing those are great.

I was waiting for this thread to pop-up. We watched it last Friday.
I never read the books, so I don't have a point of reference on the story. But from what I have heard, the story was drastically changed from what is in the books, and the fan base is very unhappy about that.
From what I have heard, this underwent a lot of re-shoots, and was delayed a year for release, and then from what it looks like, (basically) just thrown away onto Disney+.

• This was missing an entire act
• Judi Dench's voice was pretty bad
• The character of Butlers niece was completely pointless. I can only assume a large part of her role was cut out.

All that being said, it wasn't a great movie, but I was entertained. Maybe I have been stuck in the house for too long and have lowered my standards. My 12 year old hated it.

Amazon has the books on sale now for $2, so I picked up the first one and will read it after I work through all the rest of my books.

So it got the Percy Jackson treatment?

Honestly, I think Percy Jackson would be better as a tv series on Netflix. Probably the same with Artemis Fowl

That movie was awful.

This may be the most cringeworthy thing I've seen in a movie in a long time.

exitone said:

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I was waiting for this thread to pop-up. We watched it last Friday.
I never read the books, so I don't have a point of reference on the story. But from what I have heard, the story was drastically changed from what is in the books, and the fan base is very unhappy about that.
From what I have heard, this underwent a lot of re-shoots, and was delayed a year for release, and then from what it looks like, (basically) just thrown away onto Disney+.

• This was missing an entire act
• Judi Dench's voice was pretty bad
• The character of Butlers niece was completely pointless. I can only assume a large part of her role was cut out.

All that being said, it wasn't a great movie, but I was entertained. Maybe I have been stuck in the house for too long and have lowered my standards. My 12 year old hated it.

Amazon has the books on sale now for $2, so I picked up the first one and will read it after I work through all the rest of my books.

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Let me know what you think about the books.

-Artemis is actually a bad guy (with complex motivations)
-Artemis's father isn't at all related to fairy stuff
-His mother is alive
-Butler has a highly skilled younger sister (not a niece)
-Holly and Artemis are enemies
-Commander Root is a man; Holly is the first female on the force (her main character motivation is proving herself)

The differences go on and on. So pissed at what they came up with.

12 year old who loved the books couldn't have been more disappointed. Almost everything was changed to the point that it's hard to say it's even the same story. Just can't understand why movie writers do this. Even if it's a great script (this wasn't), they have to know it will anger fans of the source material, right?

I asked her something about the Aculos in the books and she said it wasn't in there. What?? That is the main plot of the movie.