: (Patrick Doyle) There are plenty of
reasons why seasoned librarians hate movie studios, and 2020's Disney
adaptation of Eoin Colfer's popular 2001 novel, "Artemis Fowl," is a
prime example. Developed over the course of nineteen years by Miramax
and then Disney, the final product on the big screen in 2020 was a
spectacular failure, alienating enthusiasts of the book and baffling
those encountering the story for the first time. In the movie version of
, the origin story of the titular 12-year-old boy is
told as he wades through a conspiracy by elements of the magical
underworld to destroy humanity while searching for his kidnapped father,
who had been in possession of an mystical item that could be used as a
weapon by an evil pixie leading the charge against humans. The wealthy
Fowl family has the technical and political power to straddle these
worlds, young Artemis teaming with an odd band of elves, dwarves,
centaurs, and other creatures to solve the mystery and explain some
family history. The aminated film cost Disney $125 million in its base
budget and was yet another property damaged by the pandemic's closures
of theatres in 2020. Still, the movie was widely distributed on the
studio's streaming services, where it angered and confused audiences in
their own homes rather than cinemas. All sequel talk was extinguished
quickly, and it served as a notable blemish for director and producer
Kenneth Branagh. As a plus for film music collectors, the involvement of
Branagh brings Patrick Doyle to the scoring duties, and
allowed the composer to combine a number of his various genre
talents into one highly diverse soundtrack. Since the film was
essentially shaped in the quintessential fantasy blockbuster mould,
Doyle expresses himself liberally in the work, making for a broad
collection of fantasy, lyricism, action, and drama in a whirlwind of a
narrative. In some ways, the overblown scope of Doyle's approach to
is exactly its greatest strength, merging many of
his prior techniques into one score; in other ways, that haphazard
collection of wayward themes and styles yields a giant, soupy mess that
is recognizable as a Doyle work but not as satisfying as his narratives
can be when he's at his best.
In fairness,
Artemis Fowl has a disastrous
storyline with too many characters and senseless plot turns, so one has
to approach Doyle's score with an understanding that the thematic and
instrumental integrity may have been compromised by necessity. The
general style of the score is all over the place, at times pandering to
the Irish setting with gorgeous applications of uilleann pipes,
pennywhistle, and fiddle reminiscent of
Quest for Camelot,
Brave, and
Into the West while shifting to electronic
embellishments akin to
The Emoji Movie and action derivatives
from
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. A vocalized new age tilt to the
Irish portion occupies "Surfing" as
Artemis Fowl's most bizarre
but accessible diversion. Often, the Gaelic tones produce the highlights
of the score, the pipes employed in rhythmic duties and the
pennywhistle, while owing its roots to
Quest for Camelot here,
applied well to expand the sonic spectrum in Naoki Sato style. There's a
fair amount of robust writing for brass in the work, even if some of
those highlights take Doyle's
Thor and supplies a touch of Debbie
Wiseman's
Arsène Lupin to that sound, especially in "Fairy
Fight." For Doyle die-hards in search of the composer's heart-breaking
lyricism, there are several passages of such loveliness here, and "A
Dear Friend" even opens with trademark string whimsy from Doyle. Solo
piano often carries many of the lighter melodic moments. Generally, the
ensemble's mix is well handled, the electronics never too intrusive and
the Irish elements outstanding at every turn. Where
Artemis Fowl
presents issues for the listener is in its total inability to form a
cohesive thematic narrative, Doyle offering a handful of dedicated
themes but not developing them intuitively. It's a score filled to the
brim with really engaging thematic notions that either don't stick
outside of a singular moment or others that switch their progressions at
a whim to make them familiar to a concept or character set but not
totally representative for the average listener. The main theme, for
instance, is presented in two related but different ways, and it's
inexplicably replaced in the final third of the film with a new main
theme. From a story standpoint, these choices make some intellectual
sense, but in execution they become inept at connecting ideas because
they simply replace each other rather than evolve from one idea into
something new for Artemis' journey and discoveries.
Doyle's initial main theme for
Artemis Fowl
serves dual purposes and thus has two slightly different variants, both
sharing the same four opening notes and some phrasing thereafter. The
family variant represents the boy's relationship with his father,
expressed with sincere, homely beauty by Doyle during the entirety of
"Father and Son," early in "You're Not Going," and in both full ensemble
and the intimate versions in "A Dear Friend." The same melody is altered
to function as the main fantasy and adventure identity of the first half
of the film but oddly not the second half. This version of the idea
debuts on cello at 1:23 into "Time to Believe" over
Great
Expectations synthetic thumping and is highlighted by several
beautiful performances throughout "Haven City," in which a choral
element is badly undermixed. Massive performances of this theme starting
at 2:01 into "To the Surface" have the same barely audible choral
accompaniment. The theme turns to mystery at 0:22 into "Full Scale
Recovery" before returning to full form at 2:06 into "Battle Stations."
It opens "New Recruit" in battle mode but is largely abandoned by Doyle
thereafter, reprised on cello at 2:17 into "A Dear Friend" and vaguely
hinted at 1:36 into "That's My Ride." Replacing that theme as the
primary identity of
Artemis Fowl in the final twenty minutes of
the score is a lushly evocative idea for the Fowl family legacy and,
alternately, the boy's bodyguard, Dom Butler. Its tone and progressions
generally foreshadowed in the unrelated narrative moment in the brief
but pretty "Beechwood Short," this theme flourishes in "The Fatal Blow,"
building from piano and woodwinds to a full ensemble performance
concluded by a wowing James Horner fantasy splurge. The idea returns in
many modes throughout "Worth Fighting For" and affirms itself in control
of the score by highlighting its final, victorious moments at 1:52 and
2:30 into "That's My Ride," where the heroism and synthetic coolness of
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit's "Ryan, Mr. President" reaches its
orgasmic crescendo. Several other themes struggle to establish
themselves in
Artemis Fowl, led by the military idea associated
with the Commander Root character, its four-note fanfare applied
frequently but its main, three-phrase theme a rarity. It debuts at 0:34
into "Commander Root," where the fanfare brackets the theme itself. The
idea builds steam early in "Battle Stations" and nicely serves as
counterpoint against main theme. (This usage is reprised in "Fairy
Dust.") Its shades inform the action late in "Fairy Fight," the sinister
ambience at 0:05 into "Collapse," and the rhythm at 1:21 into "That's My
Ride."
The muddiness that exists to perplex the listener of
Artemis Fowl is especially prevalent in the lesser motifs that
pop up throughout the score and serve their basic purpose without really
tying anything together. The action material suffers this kind of
anonymity to a greater extent, much of it underpinned by typical
minor-third ostinatos. The duo of "Containment" and "Full Scale
Recovery" present the base of this electronic material, and pieces of
that rhythm help the development of the more boldly melodramatic action
in "Bring Him Back." Other ideas arise singularly in the score and have
no subsequent impact. Some of the synthetics applied to "Commander Root"
are explored further in the middle parts of "The Aculos," where the
connections to
The Emoji Movie are unmistakable. After the big
reveal of the artifact in that cue, Doyle shares an interlude sequence
with the family legacy/Dom Butler theme in the cue. Otherwise, however,
the Aculos motif has little influence on the rest of the score despite
its outsized impact upon the story. Like the "Beechwood Short" cue, "The
Artist" is another pretty moment for piano and woodwinds that has a
touch of Randy Edelman sappiness but is nonetheless missed elsewhere. As
mentioned before, the "Surfing" cue is also a singular highlight that
showcases both the electronics and Gaelic elements, but it sticks out
like a sore thumb amongst everything else. Those rare few who enjoyed
The Quest for Camelot will appreciate the similar pennywhistle
performances in the middle of this cue. Overall,
Artemis Fowl is
a likeable score with few obnoxious moments. The immensity of its
fantasy portions and the intimacy of the lyrical passages offer
countless highlights for the Doyle enthusiast. In fact, there's more to
like with each listen. But the whole mass of disparate styles and themes
simply doesn't work as a cohesive presentation. Doyle sometimes has a
habit of writing a few substantial and memorable highlights in otherwise
pleasantly average scores, and
Artemis Fowl plays like a version
of that habit on steroids, the highlights aplenty and well worth your
time but the score still suffering from an identity problem in sum.
Despite Disney's hope that this concept would span a franchise of films,
Doyle provided absolutely nothing memorable for a general audience to
recall in future films. One could argue that the production hell that
occupied this movie for a long time is partly responsible for the "score
to the moment" approach from Doyle, and that's fair. On album, the
nearly hour-long, score-only presentation is an easy listen, available
as a high-resolution download in place of a CD. A fantastic 20 to
25-minute suite of material awaits from that product.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Patrick Doyle reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.84
(in 32 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.44
(in 26,327 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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