10 Worst Movie Characters Of 2020 (So Far)
3. Artemis Fowl II (Ferdia Shaw) - Artemis Fowl
To the surprise of not a single living soul, Disney's new live-action tentpole Artemis Fowl is one of the year's worst films.
Dumped on Disney+ recently after its box office prospects dried up, the YA adaptation was trampled by critics, in large part due to the spectacularly bad depiction of its title character.
12-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl (Ferdia Shaw) is a beloved fictional character, yet one lent an historically terrible treatment here.
The primary culprit is the script, which fatally sanitises the character's edgier and thornier sensibilities, instead turning him into a blandly innocuous riff on Ritchie Rich.
Nobody likes to dunk on child actors, but it has to be said that first-time actor Ferdia Shaw's performance here is not good, though he's absolutely at the mercy of a screenplay that has nothing for him.
Despite being the protagonist of a best-selling novel franchise, Artemis as depicted here just isn't someone kids will actually want to be.
Furthermore, it quickly becomes clear that several of the movie's other characters - especially elf recon officer Holly Short (Lara McDonnell) - probably should've taken the protagonist role instead.
Artemis Fowl stinks from top to bottom, but it all begins with how comprehensively the script misunderstands Artemis as a character.