'Escape Room: Tournament of Champions' Review
PG-13: Violence, terror/peril, and strong language
Runtime: 1 Hr and 28 Minutes
Production Companies: Original Film, Shaken Not Stirred
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Director: Adam Robitel
Writers: Will Honley, Maria Melnik, Daniel Tuch, Oren Uziel
Cast: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya Moore, Holland Roden, Thomas Cocquerel, Carlito Olivero
Release Date: July 16, 2021
Theaters Only
After surviving a series of harrowing, deadly escape rooms designed by Minos Escape Rooms Corporation, Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) are determined to bring it to justice, for they witnessed the deaths of those who hadn't survived them. They unexpectedly get trapped with several survivors of other escape rooms on their way to confront Minos in New York City. They must all work together to get through yet another gauntlet of Minos' more elaborate and dangerous escape rooms if they are to have any hope of putting a stop to its murderous games once and for all.
Back in January 2019, Adam Robitel’s horror-thriller Escape Room was the de facto January film to surprise audiences. As far as January releases go (which are known for being low-quality), it was a surprisingly enjoyable film that boasted great production design, thrilling set pieces, and a thoroughly captivating ensemble… all within the budget of 9 million dollars. Since that film made a huge profit, Sony said:
For a sequel about killer escape rooms that are on the same deadly competitive level as the Hunger Games with killer Saw sensibilities but on a PG-13 scale, the setup is pretty strong. Because Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) are the only two survivors of the murderous escape room games, they are both suffering from PTSD. They’re unable to function without panicking about their surroundings to the extent that they're unable to sleep. When the surviving champions travel to NYC to take down Minos (the company that put them through hell), they find themselves trapped in yet another unexpected escape room, but this time with other escape room survivors in an NYC subway train.
The entire first act depicts the trauma that Zoey and Ben share, leading to the first set piece itself with the NYC subway train. By the time everyone realizes they’re in the game that physically and psychologically fucked them up, you just wanna cry for them, for nobody wants to go through that emotional trauma again. It’s essentially the same premise as Catching Fire where these veterans of a deadly competition gotta do the same shit to survive again, yet it manages to give you that same sense of panic and fright that keeps you on your toes throughout. The fact that they shot this film in South Africa, recreating the streets of New York and other meticulously elaborate sets as puzzle boards the ensemble must solve, is impressive. Like the first film, this benefits from having a stellar production design to keep you on your toes.
Taylor Russell and Logan Miller are as great as they were in the predecessor and now they’re joined by new cast members: Indya Moore, Holland Roden, and Thomas Cocquerel who all do a good job depicting their motivation of survival with their own individualistic traits. Though some of them do stupid shit at the expense of everyone else, you can’t help but empathize with them.
While I adored the first act all the way until the thrilling subway set-piece, the film hits its stride right then and there. Maybe it’s because I’m a New York native and the entire sequence had to be the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen occur in a subway in a movie, but none of the set pieces after that capture the same intensity in terms of emotion, pacing, deadly terror, and problem-solving. You get a series of other life-or-death puzzles that aren’t enticing or thrilling. The film ends up following the same formula as the predecessor where they must go from one elaborate escape room to the next to solve the puzzle and hope to God they make it out in one piece. Due to this sequel having a shorter runtime, you barely get character development for Zoey or Ben, nor does it answer any questions about who is in control of this escape room cooperation that somehow has bottomless pockets. It gets repetitive quickly and, as far as pacing goes, it’s not as exciting as the first film. This sequel has fewer rooms and dedicates more time to solving them as if you’re watching people doing it in real-time. It’s still thoroughly entertaining to watch nonetheless, but it doesn’t strike the same spark like the previous film. You got four credited screenwriters on this sequel and the best you can do is recreate a less exciting version of the first film?
Everybody’s overall consensus of the first Escape Room was how fun it was until it tried to force a sequel down its own throat instead of following through on a satisfying conclusion. That first movie’s forced ending feels relatively cohesive compared to the sequel’s because this movie’s third act is an absolute nonsensical mess. It’s one of those “you gotta see it to believe it” endings because not only does it not make any logistical sense, but the finale laughably forces a third-film set-up when it didn’t even answer any questions the leads (and the audience) had. I know this is supposed to be mindless fun as far as a thriller goes, but that first movie had a brain. The majority of its puzzle pieces fit at the very least, but the sequel’s third act takes a hammer and jams those pieces into its jumbled jigsaw puzzle. FOUR SCREENWRITERS and what they came up with for its so-called “twist” makes little to no sense at all. It kind of ruins the integrity of the predecessor as well. I’m curious to see what director Adam Robitel’s playbook entails because right now it feels like the impending third part of this story is just one big question mark.
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions benefits from a committed ensemble cast, a great first act, and an amazing initial set-piece. Unfortunately, it’s not as creative or as thrilling as its predecessor since it enacts the same exact formula but with a more dumbfounding conclusion. This PG-13 Saw-type series is quickly running out of rooms to escape from.
