Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions

This review may contain spoilers!

 

 Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is the sequel to 2019's Escape Room, in which a group of random people find themselves trapped in a series of life or death styled escape rooms. In this feature our two surviving heroes, Zoey and Ben, are trying to hunt down the evil corporation who trapped them and find themselves once again tricked into a series of deadly escape rooms. However, this time the group they find themselves with have something in common: they have each survived Minos' torturous escape rooms before. What I liked about this film was how it actually expanded on the story of the original film; having someone infiltrate Zoey's life in order to place her in the perfect escape room, examining how each of the former champions came from 'themed' groups and seeing how much more intricate the escape rooms were designed in this particular feature. I think a lot of these drove what made this film a more updated take on the survival-horror genre. The cinematography and special effects for the feature do well but aren't much to rave over, the high stakes scenes are well captured and the fake background effects look to be an improvement on the first film.

 

Thomas Cocquerel, who played Nathan, gives quite an interesting perspective as a jaded priest who survived his own escape room experience; watching Cocquerel play with the notion of struggling faith in the face of sadistic life or death struggles is one of the better aspects of the film. Holland Roden, who played Rachel, is this real tough as nails survivor type who works extremely well for this type of sequel; Roden feels like a capable contestant and she is extremely tough in the face of overwhelming odds.

However, the best performance came from Logan Miller, who played Ben Miller. The way this role builds on from the sequel actually feels well developed and thought through. Miller plays strongly to the character's loyalty and bond with Russell's Zoey; the pair continuously trust and lean on one another for support after surviving a traumatic experience together. I liked how we still see Ben as such a reluctant protagonist, he is severely scarred from his previous experience with the escape rooms and has a significant night terror scene in the film. Watching Miller competently handle the escape rooms reminds us why Ben was a survivor in the first film, yet he is never capable of seeing through the puzzle like Zoey does; ultimately making a pawn for Minos to use. 

 

Escape Room was a film I enjoyed because it toyed with a solid set-up, intriguing escape rooms and a great cast of characters. This film had a lot of similar qualities to the original, though it traded a good set-up for making the world-building richer. But ultimately my biggest gripe with this sequel was that it wasn't confident enough to do many new things. The start of the film really pushes our cast of characters together quite abruptly and in a manner that is difficult to really believe in. Pair that with a lot of will they, won't they romance subplot between our two leads and the beginning of the feature was decidedly less engaging this go around. Once you get past the feeling of a more production-heavy sequel the issues in the second act are exactly the same as the first film. The story takes a back seat and we watch as the characters experience the escape rooms, then survive with a member of the group dying per room. The final act gets contrived when it brings back a presumed dead role from the first film who has secretly been behind all the pain and misery of this film. It's a poor twist that muddies one of the finer roles from the original feature and guides the film to another ending that begs the audience for a third outing. The score for this film is even less appealing than the first feature, droning when the stakes get high but offering little else in terms of range. 

Taylor Russell, who played Zoey Davis, has lost what made her protagonist so engaging somewhere between the original and this film; Russell's role struggles with conveying a range of emotion especially in the big scenes where she is meant to display grief. Indya Moore, who played Brianna, is one of the more generic expected roles from this genre; Moore doesn't work outside of the traumatized victim who reacts with fear rather than logic to the danger around her. Carlito Olivero, who played Derek, is the tough type with little thought for his actions; I found Olivero to be another performer to play towards type rather than character. Deborah Ann Woll, who played Amanda Harper, is a pale reflection of her original take on the character; this cowardly hollowed out figure is a far cry from the traumatized soldier served up in the first film.

A sequel that never achieves more than the previous instalment but which is salvaged by a decent production design and some fresh story elements. I would give Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions a 4.5/10.