The Best Thing About 'Hotel Artemis' Is Its Titular Establishment

Hotel Artemis is a cyberpunk crime thriller film set in 2028 Los Angeles, in which water is privatized.  When the company that owns it cuts the supply off, a violent, widespread riot erupts around the city.  Exploiting the bedlam all around, brothers Sherman (Sterling K. Brown) and Lev (Brian Tyree Henry) decide to rob a bank.  But the heist goes sideways, leading to Lev getting critically wounded.  To save his life, Sherman has to bring him to Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital for criminals operated by the Nurse (Jodie Foster) and her aide, Everest (Dave Bautista).  The night further spirals into chaos as Hotel Artemis also has to deal with a French femme fatale assassin (Sofia Boutella), an arrogant arms dealer (Charlie Day), a wounded cop (Jenny Slate), a try-hard mob boss’ son (Zachary Quinto), and the city’s kingpin, “The Wolf King” (Jeff Goldblum).

This movie gained buzz because of the similar feel of the eponymous Hotel Artemis to John Wick’s The Continental.  And indeed, there are parallels.  Both serve as haven for criminals, and maintain a set of rules that clients have to strictly adhere to – or else.  It’s easy to imagine the world of Hotel Artemis as what the future world of John Wick would look like.  Basically, Hotel Artemis is a more technologically advanced but more rundown version of The Continental, and that it’s more focused on treating injured criminals.

The most fascinating aspect of this movie is easily the worldbuilding of its titular setting.  I really enjoyed when details about the place are revealed through dialogue or visuals.  And I especially found the 3D printer for organs to be pretty cool.

Meanwhile, though the colorful characters lack substantial sophistication, they nonetheless prove to be fun to watch.

Unfortunately, it’s unsuccessful in building a completely engaging narrative out of these aforementioned elements.  It has a tad too many plot threads, and it’s unable to weave them into a truly cohesive, satisfactory whole.  The narrative doesn’t get too cluttered, but it can get noticeably over the place and directionless at times.  Nevertheless, it’s mostly entertaining.  It delivers an ample share of badass and even funny moments.

My most favorite scene is probably (SPOILERS) when the femme fatale proceeds to assassinate the Wolf King.  When the latter realizes that he’s about to be killed by the former, he tries to bargain for his life in desperation.  However, the former shushes him and replies, “They bought your death.  Don’t give them your dignity for free.”  Quickly realizing the harsh wisdom of the statement, he calmly accepts his fate, muttering, “So, this is how it happens.  Wow.  All right, baby.  Send me down the river.”   Awesome!

Overall, Hotel Artemis is not quite a terrific standout.  But it often intrigues with its serviceable quality.