Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)

I really enjoyed the first 'Escape Room' film back in 2019 (it feels like longer ago than that for some reason). The movie was pretty well received and did well at the box office so of course a sequel was going to come along eventually. Plus the ending of the first one basically demanded it (an ending that is recapped at the beginning of this film in case you were wondering whether you needed to see the original first before this - although I would still recommend it for other things that crop up during the sequel). So here we are two years later getting that follow-up, and I have to say it was a pretty darn good movie all up.

I'll start by saying if you struggle with suspension of disbelief in films then you are going to struggle with this one a lot. There are some elements to this movie that are so far-fetched they don't even try to explain them. You just have to accept them for what they are and sit back and enjoy the ride (if you can).

Both of the movies in this series have PG-13 ratings, but it really doesn't take anything away from either of the movies as far as I can tell. People still die in some pretty horrific ways, however the movie isn't going out of its way to rub your face in it. It has a strong enough story going on that it really doesn't have to. We know the stakes are high and (almost) no character is safe.

The pacing of this movie is electric. It's short at only 88 minutes, but even then it's over before you know it. Once the action starts it never relents. These movies are almost like a hybrid of the horror and action genres and I think that is one of the reasons they work so well. People who like horror are able to enjoy the action elements just fine, and people who don't like horror know that the movie isn't setting out to scare you or gross you out at all. There's a really good balance found here.

The only criticism I'd suggest was that some of the new characters could have done with a little fleshing out. There's a scene where everyone goes around the circle and says their name, and that's about the extent of the development we get for a lot of them. It makes them a little hard to care for, and makes them feel quite expendable.

If you enjoyed the first 'Escape Room' you're almost certainly going to have a good time with this one too. This one follows a similar formula, but has some unique twists and turns to add something to the series as well. I had a really good time with 'Escape Room: Tournament of Champions' and would recommend people check it out.

Fmovies: I only gave Adam Robitel's original "Escape Room" 5/10. It was perhaps hoping for too much that his sequel - "Escape Room: Tournament of Champions" - would be better.

Positives:

• As in the first film, Taylor Russell again stands out as a personable, attractive and convincing actress. She deserves a role in something a lot better.

• The production design on the "game sets" is certainly very impressive.

Negatives:

• The fact that SIX people are down with writing credits for this astonishes me. The whole thing comes across as lazily plotted, with virtually no character development of the players. (Yes, even less than the first film.) You might think Nathan (Thomas Cocquerel) as an athletic priest might be an interesting character. I was expecting him at one point to channel the dramatic demise of Gene Hackman's similar character in "The Poseidon Adventure". But no. Nothing much is done with this.

• It's a movie where the more you think about it afterwards, the less sense it makes. Some examples:

-- People are dead, but then again - when inconvenient for the plot - dead no longer.

-- There's some bizarre "daughter kidnap" sub-plot at one point, but that's never referred to again.

-- Acid rain has no effect on a lock... until that is, the rainwater is captured and poured on the lock! Bonkers!

• There's a tragic amount of inane running around and wailing that gets mentally tiresome. You can imagine this written in the script as "Now run down the corridor and adlib some 'teenagers in peril' noises". (This is a best case guess: I'd hate to think that some of the "Quick!"s and "Hurreeeee!"'s had actually been scripted).

Summary Thoughts on "Escape Room: Tournament of Champions": I found this one to be tragically bad. A lame attempt to cash in on the bizarre $155M success of the first B-movie. My personal recommendation: Avoid!

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Interesting premise. Fun escape rooms and sets. What happened with this script.

I have never been so offended as an audience to be treated like I am too stupid to understand what I'm watching happen - so because I'm a stupid audience member I need to have what I'm watched explained at literally ever possible moment.

Who thought literally any of the dialogue was necessary OR that these performances were acceptable. And some of these actors are really great in other work.

I don't understand how a studio thought this script that took 4 people to write was anything close to ready to be a movie.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions fmovies. One of the most colossally stupid, inconsistent screenplays I've seen put to the big screen.

The first film wasn't good, but at least it had some attempts at compelling themes and interesting characters. This movie has nothing but absurdity and an underwhelming story to offer.

Dont know why I watched it till the end.

I enjoyed the first one. This obviously had a bigger budget but think they spent it on sfx rather than script or decent actors.

After the first room I was hoping they'd all die in the second one.

I enjoyed the first film, was fresh. They didn't really offer anything new here, definitely more budget but that's about all. The first "room" dragged on and overall the rooms were not as inventive as the first film. When the solving of the puzzles involves nonstop changes in direction it loses any interest as it's just from one thing to another. More of a rental than at the movies.