Escape Room Tournament Of Champions Review Movie
Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions Review
If it weren't a follow-up to the 2019's Escape Room, which provided an unsettling twist on the trend of immersive puzzles with a theme it's possible to give Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions an extra bonus point to tap into the current mood whether you like puzzles or not The most people don't want today is to be in a room with others. It's visually stunning and a distraction throughout the 88 minutes of its runtime but it's ultimately that focuses on brainteasers, with very little cleverness of its own.
For those who are new to the genre, there's no need to worry – the film begins with a lengthy highlights reel from the previous installment, which saw Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) endure a series murder-themed escape rooms that were set up by a dark cabal Minos where the super-rich wager on players and observe the action play out as. If this sounds like more than Hunger Games, the comparisons are continued into Tournament Of Champions, which puts the two back in the fight, with the exact "All Stars" setup as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. In the hope of capturing video evidence of Minos their twisted games and reveal them in the public eye, the two find themselves fighting for their lives once more with an enthralling, but thinly drawn collection of previous survivors, including travel writer Brianna (Pose's Indya Moore) and nerve-damaged Rachel (Holland Roden) as well as a the fallen pastor Nathan (Thomas Cocquerel) and the tough man Theo (Carlito Olivero).
It's impossible to deny the absurdity of it all is.
It's a pulpy setup, and the returning director Adam Robitel provides moments of visual awe (an early dream sequence that closes the walls unfolds in a claustrophobic oner). There's no denying the sheer absurdity it is, with the characters taking bizarre leaps of reasoning to find the labyrinthine clues to beat the clock in each game. The death chambers themselves- starting from an electrified subway vehicle to a vast sandy beach that is sinking are both extravagant and unsatisfyingly basic. The set-piece of an unlit bank (step onto one of the floor tiles and you're dead!) is hard not to be like a crime-fiction episode from The Crystal Maze. (Some extra gags from Richard Ayoade wouldn't make it any more hilarious.)
The thinness is felt too in its bloodless PG-13 execution, and a lacklustre script full of ropey dialogue ("So what is this, like a tournament of champions?" asks one character in the worst say-the-title-in-the-movie line since that Will Smith Suicide Squad moment). Most of the film is filled with panicked screeching when time is running out, showing that watching others solve puzzles and debate isn't as enjoyable in the same way as solving puzzles and debating yourself trying to recreate the excitement of an escape room. Tournament Of Champions has all the screaming and a fraction of satisfaction. The fact that it's a game is irrelevantthe entire thing is concluded with a rather snarky non-ending that sets the stage for another chapter that appears like it's going to take The Hunger Games playbook into Mockingjay territory. What do you think of "Escape Room the Floor Really Is Lava'?
