Hotel Artemis doesn't have any 'A-list' actors or any massive names from the industry but what it does have is an interesting and unique plot. This is what actually enticed me to go and watch the film. The film hasn't received the best reviews and ratings, and its profit from cinema isn't the best either. Surely on paper this film is bad and should be avoided? But as they say, never judge a book (or in this case film) by its cover and here's why.
I'll start off with what I liked about the film. Right from the beginning, the film established the plot, the location, timezone and characters really well. The use of text to introduce the film, the time and the film situation was a nice touch and allowed the film to ease into the story, this helped to ensure that the audience were fully aware of the basic structure of the film which was key. Interesting, but typical pan shots were used to show us a futuristic version of Los Angeles, these looked amazing in the darkness and really strengthened the introduction to the film, simply by producing scenes to give the audience a great interpretation of where the story was set and the general mood and feel of the futuristic city. The film set off really quickly too. But in this case it was done well, we were instantly thrown into the action of what was happening and we got to know the main characters even better. The quick and short shots of inside the 1920s themed 'hotel' were really cool and portrayed the film in a really fun and unique manner by just simply providing the audience with a new and unfamiliar type of setting. I was really impressed with the plot and the idea too, a secret hospital for criminals with a membership was really cool and just brought something new to the table that I hadn't really seen before! The characters in the film were all very unique too and all managed to offer something to the film, the main character was clearly displayed right from the beginning, however the film introduced the audience to the other characters well through the use of flashbacks and general dialogue between them. The audio and dialogue combination was great too. The inclusion of tense audio and character disagreements were great examples of how the film kept the audience nervous and tense throughout the film, there were always people arguing which we were waiting to see if it would actually cause a full on fight and we were definitely rewarded! The film didn't just make the audience feel uneasy though, it was able to use flashbacks of Jean Thomas's dead child to create an emotional feel as we were clearly able to see how her anxiety and dealing with the death of her child was affecting her and how this developed throughout the duration of the film. As a side note I feel that the inclusion of a character with anxiety was a nice touch to the plot of the film, it was a strange sight seeing mental health being represented in this manner within a film and for most audiences it would probably seem shocking too. But I felt that it was a nice, different characteristic, hopefully this will help to raise awareness and support the great cause.
But what I especially enjoyed in this film was the character relationships and the setting for the film, throughout the film we were slightly surprised as some character relationships changed. However, for the most part, most of the characters seemed to stay in their typical groups which for some audiences may seem boring, but not for me. Although the inclusion of a 'double agent' where one of the female characters got into the hospital and then surprised us by killing another patient was interesting, and even though it wasn't a massive plot twist, it did help the film flow quite nicely. There were other similar side stories to this as well, these involved helping an old friend who had been injured in the riots, to the fight scenes between Waikiki and Acapulco (not entirely sure who came up with these names?!) which just added in an extra sense of entertainment to the film and I feel that it just generally strengthened the film. As we managed to see a variety of mini side stories. These didn't take up too much screen time either and as they weren't very confusing, they made sense and ended up being a good addition. I really liked the level of secrecy in the film too, the scary character "the wolf king" was mentioned at many points throughout the film and how scary he was; but we as an audience had no idea of who he was - this had a great impact of keeping the audience guessing and interested as to who the character would be and if we would see why they were so feared in the city. Again, the fight scene when he appeared, added to this tension surrounding him. These other fight scenes were very fast paced too which I feel was very helpful and effective at making them seem dangerous and really engaging, although some of the scenes were a little bit grim...
Here are some of the features of the film that I wasn't so happy about. Firstly, there were some seriously grim, possibly over the top, fight scenes in the film. For example during one of them, a character gets his head pushed into a 3D printer which was absolutely not what I wanted to see considering that I had only just eaten, being cut up by a futuristic piece of medical equipment was not what I wanted to see either. My main problem with this film though, was it having quite a high level of confusion. Many of the scenes left me wondering as to why they were actually in the film and questioning their relevance. This was a shame, because I think the plot was strong but some additional scenes such as the conversation between Nice and Acapulco on the roof and showing us some riot scenes was just not needed - it did help to add to the authenticity of the film but I think it mainly just disrupted the flow of the film. I felt that some of the scenes were a little bit unrealistic too, so each patient had a lovely suite room with a full furnished bar and it just made me wonder as to how Jean could afford all of this? Especially working by herself in a fairly small hospital, but maybe this was just something that went over my head. Some of the non diegetic audio was not helpful to the moods in some of the scenes either, for example during some tense and nervy scenes, the audio didn't help to reflect the mood and slightly ruined the on screen action; however this wasn't a large occurrence and only happened once or twice in the film but it still felt a little unprofessional.
Some of the characters felt just a little bit over the top too, the police officers seemed to be wearing armour that reminded me of something from a video game. It wasn't very effective at all and the lights flashing on their shoulders wasn't a good look either! But it just felt like a bit too much detail had been put into actually creating personalities for these characters when maybe they should have questioned whether they were needed and if they were over the top. Hopefully this would've meant that some costumes and personalities would've been a bit more toned down which would've allowed the audience to enjoy the film more.
Overall, I would give this film a solid 8. I really feel that the plot and the setting for this film was really cool and well executed, it was interesting. it was visually appealing and the actual plot idea was a new and refreshing idea that made the film enjoyable for me. However I cannot look past the irrelevance of some of the scenes and the combination of some grim fighting scenes, over the top character representation (for some characters) and some scenes that felt completely irrelevant. This seemed to drag the score of the film down for me.
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing this review and watching the film. Have a lovely day! :)
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