As a cinephile who prefers theatrical experiences over sitting at home, the movie is good enough to warrant that extra money. Movies out are a chance to get away from it all, suspend any disbelief and go along for a ride that some truly creative folks built for us. This movie does a decent job of that. The hotel set itself is well resolved with just enough grunge tech mixed with sci-fi high end equipment (I don't want to spoil anything) to keep it fun to look at. It has a Coen brothers Barton Fink fused with Terry Gilliam's Brazil sort of feel. The original fixtures are Art Deco and then, with the decay of 'everything civilized', the building has been maintained only as needed to serve its purpose, its perfect. The beginning is well paced, you are introduced to the chaos of the outside world with just enough of a storyline to get you to the receiving doors of the hotel. Characters all arrive on screen with an orderly almost metronome tempo, each with enough backstory development to keep you entertained. The set is complimented by the wardrobe design which is current and matches the roleplayers they adorn. Characters anonymity is done in a slick way and we quickly understand membership and the rules of the day, (some John Wick echoes here) and just as that is settled the main plot line kicks into gear. Jodie Foster plays her role effortlessly, perhaps too much so, it feels like there is some complex character development left on the editing room floor. She delivers though, and so do the others. Bautista manages to shed typecast expectations. Sofia Boutella has grown as an actor and does a great job having lost her go-to bag of angry eye facial expressions, her action sequences are plausible which is refreshing given some of the incessantly over the top moves seen in other 2018 flicks. Sterling K Brown is perfect, Goldblum too sheds his Jurassic Park trademark vocal style. All in all, the movie has the right ingredients to be fantastic. I recommend seeing it, absolutely, if you're a movie buff, see it on a big screen. Where it under delivers is with the transition of Fosters character being in control to everything going sideways. It happens too quickly. There is a lot more room left to develop disdain for the bad guys. It just sort of shifts from fairly tight to fairly predictable and it sort of methodically roles along winding down from there. It got my 7 of 10 for its finish, feel and editing, without that it would warrant maybe a six. Better than average for the genre.
Review of Hotel Artemis
