Possibly the worst adaptation from a book I've ever seen. The books are very funny and quirky and unique with a sharp edge and a nice dose of silliness, aptly described as 'die hard but with fairies'. This film was a sirupy, bland, tacky, cheesy mess that would have seemed out of date if played on CBBC in the 1980s (don't know if cbbc existed then but you get the picture). This could have been the start of a brilliant and hilarious fantasy franchise that really championed the Irish humour and folklore. Instead it was a catastrophe.
Artemis himself: in the book a cold hearted anti hero, who at 12 years old, only ever wears a suit and outwardly feels no empathy and scorns at any sort of emotion. Only starts to soften in book two, but only a little. And an actively practicing high level criminal. In the film, a playful kid who loves surfing and outward bound activities and sentimentally listening to his father reading him fairytales - and who is appalled when the TV news calls his father a criminal.
And aside from that so many things, why is Mulch tall and with a height complex? Where did that come from? And why do they all become friends so fast? There's generally a lot more narky taking the piss and being rude to each other in the books, replaced by doe eyed, heart warming long looks and emotional music here.
The main problem, why didn't they just adapt the first book, rather than try and squeeze half baked elements of the second book? The evil child genius discovers the existence of the fairies and plots to kidnap one of them to steal their secrets, he does so and there's a frenzied rescue mission. That is more than enough. Instead they added in an honourable father rescue mission and introduced a half baked version of Opal Koboi (what a waste of a cracking villain introduced in book 2, the vain, high pitched narcissist beautiful pixie turns into an anonymous hooded villain with a distorted voice)
These books are brilliant. Get your kids to read them, read them to your kids, read them yourself as an adult, such a shame they butchered them in this catastrophe of a film that could have been so much better!
Artemis himself: in the book a cold hearted anti hero, who at 12 years old, only ever wears a suit and outwardly feels no empathy and scorns at any sort of emotion. Only starts to soften in book two, but only a little. And an actively practicing high level criminal. In the film, a playful kid who loves surfing and outward bound activities and sentimentally listening to his father reading him fairytales - and who is appalled when the TV news calls his father a criminal.
And aside from that so many things, why is Mulch tall and with a height complex? Where did that come from? And why do they all become friends so fast? There's generally a lot more narky taking the piss and being rude to each other in the books, replaced by doe eyed, heart warming long looks and emotional music here.
The main problem, why didn't they just adapt the first book, rather than try and squeeze half baked elements of the second book? The evil child genius discovers the existence of the fairies and plots to kidnap one of them to steal their secrets, he does so and there's a frenzied rescue mission. That is more than enough. Instead they added in an honourable father rescue mission and introduced a half baked version of Opal Koboi (what a waste of a cracking villain introduced in book 2, the vain, high pitched narcissist beautiful pixie turns into an anonymous hooded villain with a distorted voice)
These books are brilliant. Get your kids to read them, read them to your kids, read them yourself as an adult, such a shame they butchered them in this catastrophe of a film that could have been so much better!
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