Review: Hotel Artemis Won't Appear On TripAdvisor
- Oct 16, 2018
- 2 min read
A hotel/surgery dedicated to the protection and aid of criminals on a particularly busy night. What could possibly go wrong.
Los Angeles 2028. The ever turbulent city is caught in the midst the largest, and most violent riots it has ever seen. Within it all, a bank robbery gone wrong. When his crew is injured in a police shootout, Waikiki (Sterling K Brown) finds himself calling on The Nurse (Jodie Foster), who runs Hotel Artemis, a surgery and hideaway for criminals on the run. Guarded by the colossal Everest (Dave Bautista), and catering to all manner of colourful individuals, Artemis is a busy place, and tonight is no exception.
If Hotel Artemis has one thing going for it, it's style. Fancy sci-fi technology, snappy dialogue, and lighting that looks like it's pulled straight from a cypernetic dystopia, which it is. Fortunately, there's more going on than just that. The plot is a hell of a ride, twisting and turning, throwing more and more intrigue at the viewer until it seems like anything can happen. There however, a couple of problems.
For one, Jeff Goldblum. Normally a good thing but here, horribly underutilised. In fact, the few short minutes he has onscreen are some of the film's best, and it hurts to see him wasted. Then there's the number of plots. There's at least five and while they're all somewhat interesting on their own, they begin to spiral out of control. Sure, it keeps you guessing, but you know you won't get the payoff you desire. But Sofia Boutella and Dave Bautista get to steam roll a bunch of goons, which more than makes up for the shortcomings.
So when all is done and the credits slowly crawl across a darkened screen, was my stay worth it? Yeah, it was. Sure, the sheets weren't as clean as they could have been, and the room service was a joke, but the staff were friendly, the other guest entertaining, and I went home satisfied. Would I stay again? Probably not. But if you need somewhere cheap overnight you can do much worse than Hotel Artemis.
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