History YMMV / ArtemisFowl

* AwardSnub: What could technically be considered an inversion: despite being pretty much universally panned by critics, fans and non-fans alike, and considered one of the worst movies of 2020 at that, the film somehow didn't garner a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture.

* SpecialEffectFailure:

* DesignatedHero: The film adapts the first two books, in which Artemis was a VillainProtagonist before transitioning to a hero later on in the series; however, this version insists on acting like he's the guy we should be rooting for, creating dissonance as he still does several morally ambiguous actions in the film. It ''really'' doesn't help that Kenneth Branagh, without a trace of irony, compared his character arc with [[Literature/TheGodfather Michael Corleone]].

** Josh Gad as Mulch. His [[GutturalGrowler voice]] sounds like a goofy [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Batman]] impression. There are also moments when [[OohMeAccentsSlipping you can hear his natural voice peek through]], which becomes hilarious as it evokes [[CantUnhearIt memories of]] [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Olaf]].

* TaintedByThePreview: The teaser has received a mixed reaction, with a lot of the criticisms directed at the changes from the original book that [[InNameOnly made it difficult to even say they were adapting anything]]. Chief among complaints is the fact that Artemis is shown as [[AdaptationalHeroism some kind of saviour of the Lower Elements]] from the start who hasn't done much research, as opposed to the chessmaster VillainProtagonist he was in his first adventure taking after his father (who had no involvement with them at all in the books and was truly a criminal) along with having a purely friendly relationship with Holly Short instead of [[EnemyMine their early cooperation]] due to their interactions in said first book involving him ''kidnapping'' her. The full trailer, released in March 2020, only intensified the criticisms. When Disney announced they would move the film to Creator/DisneyPlus the following month rather than push its theatrical release date back (again) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down movie theaters worldwide, Internet commenters theorized the studio wanted to cut its losses rather than risk a BoxOfficeBomb after the poor reception to the trailers (especially as ''Film/Mulan2020'' which was to be released first did not receive the same treatment, only being moved to the service months later when it was clear theaters wouldn't reopen ''en masse'', and ''still'' released theatrically in regions where the service is not available).

** The WTHCastingAgency aside, Lara [=McDonnell=] is considered one of the few who totally came out of the movie with their dignity intact. To the point that Kenneth Branagh working with her again on ''Film/{{Belfast}}'' totally tracks.

* WTHCastingAgency: Some of the casting choices have received a mixed response.
** Butler and Juliet receiving a RaceLift by being played by Nonzo Anozie and Tamara Smart, even though they were explicitly Eurasian in the books. Part of the negative reaction to this is due to the Butler family being cast entirely as dedicated guards, servants and aides to the Fowl line, and some felt that casting a black man for this role sent... rather negative implications. There's a second load of negative reaction in the idea that Eurasian people aren't an important enough ethnic group to be portrayed on screen.
** Lara [=McDonnell=] as Holly Short. The actress didn't have nut-brown skin, nor was she older than Ferdia Shaw, who plays 12-year-old Artemis.
** The most criticized is Creator/JudiDench... as [[GenderFlip Commander Root]]. While Dench has already been praised in other roles beforehand, especially as an IronLady, people still felt that changing Root's gender kills the dynamic he and Holly shared in the books. The source material had Holly as the first female LEP Captain, Root being strict with her because of this uniqueness, and Holly herself being under a great deal of public and internal pressure to serve as a model for future female officers. Having a female Root as the already well-established leader of the LEP is largely incompatible with that particular angle, and undermines Holly's significance.

** "[=LEPrecon=]" & ''The Atlantis Complex'': [[AntiVillain Turnball Root]] is the criminal older brother of Commander Julius Root. Extorting information from a LEP officer with a deadly spider, Turnball then captures Holly Short during her LEP initiation to use her as bait for Julius, setting up a backup trap when his scheme with Holly fails. Incarcerated after defiantly trying to kill himself to evade capture, Turnball regains his magic in prison and brainwashes a guard into giving him a computer to hack a LEP space probe. Using the probe to break out of prison while eliminating any witnesses and evidence, Turnball tries to force the heroes into helping him restore youth to his dying human wife and when she chooses to end her own life, Turnball gracefully opts to die with her.

** The first book deliberately aims for this by making sure that every time [[VillainProtagonist Artemis]] does the right thing, he can explain it away as PragmaticVillainy. The psychiatrist who narrates the book argues that Artemis is a sociopath (though admittedly not a standard case by any sense of the imagination), and warns of the tendency to view him as more noble than he really is. Later books make him more of a hero, though.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The first book deliberately aims for this by making sure that every time [[VillainProtagonist Artemis]] does the right thing, he can explain it away as PragmaticVillainy. The psychiatrist who narrates the book argues that Artemis is a sociopath (though admittedly not a standard case by any sense of the imagination), and warns of the tendency to view him as more noble than he really is. Later books make him more of a hero, though.

** The WTHCastingAgency aside, Lara [=McDonnell=] is considered one of the few who totally came out of the movie with their dignity in tact. To the point that Kenneth Branagh working with her again on ''Film/{{Belfast}}'' totally tracks.

* AwardSnub: What could technically be considered an inversion: despite being pretty much universally panned by critics; fans and non-fans alike—and considered one of the worst movies of 2020 at that too, the film somehow didn't garner a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture.

** The [[https://youtu.be/33HV4wKeNbA fight scene outside the mansion]] (which is redone as Artemis and Butler both fighting LEPRecon in the daytime instead of Butler taking them out at night) has multiple severe editing and VFX errors, including all of the actors teleporting into totally different positions during a long shot and a stair fall stunt having a bad cut to fake a single take that puts the stunt performer in a different position between cuts.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The first book mentions that Butler's family are all trained at a school in Israel but Butler later remembers something from the Swiss academy. ''Eternity Code'' explains that the school moves every five years and that Butler spent the first few years in Israel until it moved to Switzerland.
** Mulch somehow uses the Gift Of Tongues to talk to some dogs in ''Arctic Incident'' even though he's lost his magic. ''Lost Colony'' handwaves this by saying both Mulch and Doodah Day each have a spark of magic left that lets them use the gift. Sadly this is contradicted by ''Atlantis Complex'' that says Bobb Ragby can't use the Gift since he lost his magic and Mulch implies he had to learn English.

* AwardSnub: Despite being pretty much universally panned by critics; fans and non-fans alike—and considered one of the worst movies of 2020 at that too, the film somehow didn't garner a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture.

* AwardSnub: Despite being pretty much universally panned by critics, fans and non-fans alike—and considered one of the worst movies of 2020 at that too, the film somehow didn't garner a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: For being his first starring role, many felt sorry for Ferdia Shaw, since it's obvious that he tried his best to give a good performance, but was bogged down by a terrible script and subpar direction. Indeed, many fans went out of their way to state that any displeasure with the films should ''not'' be taken out on the actors, and especially not Shaw.

* IdiotPlot: The entire berserker threat would never have occurred if they had simply killed the future Opal BEFORE they put her in the reactor tank.
** It is admittedly implied to be a result of fairy society being based on [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifism]], so that they are neither legally allowed nor morally inclined to shoot a prisoner. Although that explanation doesn't make much sense given Artemis and Butler were also present and seemingly neither of them even thought of it.
*** They were present in the control room in Haven, not the cell block in Atlantis. They could suggest it but not do it. They probably did think of it but knew there was no point saying anything.
** The Atlantis Complex: For starters said complex is pretty much how you glue the IdiotBall on Artemis, the elven space project being accessible by a prison guard (and existing) and no one but Turnbull and the old fairy Artemis met in Vietnam knowing about the magic spark trick.

* SpecialEffectFailure: All the CGI involved in realizing the time freezing scenes is pretty rough. A standout example is whenever Artemis's home is shown in a distant wide shot, which looks like it came from a cheap video game.

* AccidentalNightmareFuel: Mulch showing off his digging skills was ''probably'' supposed to be a cool demonstration of his abilities, but the massive loads of UncannyValley as he [[BodyHorror stretches his jaw to inhuman proportions]] as well as his [[NightmareFace borderline feral expression]] as he's digging through the dirt ended up creeping out a ton of viewers.

** Butler and Juliet receiving a RaceLift by being played by Nonzo Anozie and Tamara Smart, even though they were explicitly Eurasian in the books. Part of the negative reaction to this is due to the Butler family being cast entirely as dedicated guards, servants and aides to the Fowl line, and some felt that casting a black man for this role sent... rather UnfortunateImplications. There's a second load of negative reaction in the idea that Eurasian people aren't an important enough ethnic group to be portrayed on screen.