The Lost Colony

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The Lost Colony, also referred to as Artemis Fowl V, was a Yr29 film starring Jack Christopherson in the lead role of Artemis Fowl, replacing William McArthur. It is the fifth film in the Artemis Fowl series.

Plot

Artemis is venturing through Tatooine alone, searching not only for a new home, but for a new purpose as well. He gets entangled with some criminals, who fight against him, until they escape via a cargo train. Artemis catches up, and defeats the thugs, only for him to get caught up with IG-88, a rouge robot who guards the biggest junkyard of Tatooine. Artemis defeats IG-88, and then investigates why a junkyard is being guarded by a rouge robot. Artemis finds out that the junk comes from all over the planet, and that the junk is used to build a new mega city - Cloud City.

Cloud City, it was later discovered, was created as a new base for the Galactic Empire, after the old one in the Oasis Jungle was abandoned. The base is headed by Darth Vader, a relatively new but very fearsome Sith Lord. Artemis later finds out that Vader led a genocide against the Jedi Knights, which is why Artemis has been wandering around between the events of the previous film. It is not known, however, as to who exactly is Vader, as the archives were incomplete, and Vader had a distinctive full body armor around him. Just as he finds out what is going on, Artemis is captured by the authorities.

To Artemis' relief, he finds out that the genocide order had been rescinded earlier, as it was believed that all the Jedi Knights had either been killed or went into extreme hiding. A bounty was still posted for anyone who killed a Jedi. Since nobody could prove Artemis was a Jedi, the authorities simply captured him for an unauthorized access to the archives. As a result, Artemis is subjected to compulsory service. Artemis figures out that Vader is building Cloud City so that Tatooine will eventually become a worldwide metropolis.

Artemis eventually breaks free from what is basically a prison cell and pursues to stop Darth Vader once and for all. He meets up with Vader and starts a battle with him, leading up to the ventilator shaft, where Vader lobs off Artemis' right arm. Just as Artemis thinks he is completely finished, Vader says that he isn't the only one who tried to kill a Jedi - since Artemis left Owen Lars for dead in the previous movie. However, Vader explains that, in fact, he is Owen Lars, and even asks Artemis to join him in the Empire together. Artemis refuses and jumps down the shaft, going down a chute and eventually hangs on to the only thing he could - the antenna near the bottom of the city. Artemis is then rescued by an unlikely face - Anakin, who was left for dead years before. Artemis gets a new robotic arm and collaborates with Anakin to destroy Cloud City with a bomb. Artemis installs the bomb inside the main generator, which will destroy all the city's power, causing a chain reaction as the fail safe systems will not work. Artemis gets tangled up with the authorities but escapes just in time to see Cloud City crumble into dust.

Cast

Production

The production of the film was notoriously problematic, given the recent recastings of not only the lead, but also a good portion of the filming crew as well. Also, director Michael Belsø had more control of the creative input in the film, so often the lines that he wrote and the special effects used in the film often went unchecked by the rest of the production staff because Belsø simply had more power in the production. "He had this idea that the film would be his masterpiece," said an unidentified crew member.

Recasting the role of Artemis Fowl was by far the biggest challenge of the film, so much that the process took almost a year. Jack Christopherson eventually landed the role despite embellishing his resume by editing the years of his film's release dates, making it appear as if he was an actor in demand. In fact, he had not been selected as a lead actor in three years before taking on the role as Artemis Fowl. Belsø hired Christopherson anyways, even after admitting to lying on his resume, for the reason being that he liked his audition tapes and that he liked his personality, adding that the alteration of the resume showed his huge ambition to pick up the job.

However, the relationship between Christopherson and Belsø tensed as filming went on, most notably when Christopher kept missing a jump in a stunt due to his short stature. "We never yelled at each other," said Christopherson in a later interview, "but we sorta had this anger between us, as if we both wanted to get out of each others' lives." It's never exactly known as to how much the two disliked each other, but it was noticed by the rest of the crew, who, by the end of the principal photography, had been loafing around and ordered fast food, much to the annoyance of the catering team hired by Belsø. It's rumoured that during the wrap party, the catering team had a bar fight between some of the cast members, resulting in thousands of dollars spent on insurance payments. However, Belsø denies the fights ever happening, since there was no official wrap party on the set. (though he doesn't discount any incidents happening outside of the studios)

Reception

The film was critically panned, as the film was the first in the franchise to receive a "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 48% rating. The biggest complaint from critics was the performance of Christopherson as Artemis Fowl, though writing has also been cited as a problem with the film. Financially, the film was a flop, as the film did not make back three quarters of its' $70 million budget. It was the first film in the series to not make a profit.

Film Critic Casey Maxwell commented that the film was doomed from the start, saying that replacing William McArthur as Artemis Fowl was an impossible task, and the film would not have been successful no matter what. He stated that had the film actually been successful financially, the fans would have still been angry "at something about Jack," saying that the fandom was never very willing to accept McArthur's replacement no matter what it is.