Review of Hotel Artemis (2018) by Djakeir — 18 Apr 2019

There were a lot of ideas that made it into this movie and very little of them contributed anything interesting to the overall project. The movie is set in future Los Angeles in the middle of a riot over clean water.

This is shoved in our face numerous times throughout the movie. This isn't a bad idea except it is overdone with helicopters exploding and purge like street fights. It is a riot not world war Z. This can be overlooked as it is not the focus.

My biggest complaint however is the lack of significance which is rife in this film. A large amount of characters are just so unnecessary. The injured cop, gets treated against the rules, nobody cares she broke the rules, gets treated and leaves.

A character on life support dies due to a power outage, everybody seems to have gotten over this in the next 5 minutes. A pen is stolen and made out to be a big deal, but instead was just used as a distraction at the end.

Other character details are dropped in that also similarly are insignificant, we find people are drug addicts, some characters love each other (who cares), a son who was thought to have overdosed but was in fact murdered by a patient just so he could be murdered by some other character with little consequence as it had little effect on the end result.

Two characters were given what was supposed to be a big final stand, but we don't know what happens to them as instead someone thought it was better to focus on a character refusing to get into a car for a reason not well explored.

I could go on, but the overall impression is just lack lustre. I don't care as much as the script writers didn't care. The directing choices were questionable at times. The short quick steps taken by the nurse was meant to make her seem more endearing and busy but just was unnatural.

Having scenes just for the sole purpose of showing how badass they are supposed to be, just comes of as pathetic. It is frustrating to me as I do believe somewhere in this there is a good plot. John Wick managed to create a criminal underworld with inside membership privileges very successfully, but instead hotel artemis decided to clutter a good plot, disfiguring it with unnecessary details and poor choices.