by Scott Batchelor, Contributing Writer
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is a sequel to a small modest hit, Escape Room, which was released in 2019. The first film in the franchise released a bit too late to really be a part of the cultural zeitgeist as the activity of escape rooms is still popular, but is not so much a novel idea anymore. Imagine a movie in the ’90s coming out called Laser Tag. Same sort of feeling. The first Escape Room played a bit fast and loose with the rules and world building, and the sequel gives you much of the same, and the same causes more confusion because the world that was supposed to be fleshed out is merely just repeated. Tournament of Champions has a great concept, but way too much is trying to be done way too fast, which leaves the viewer way too confused about what is going on.
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions starts with the two surviving leads from the first movie continuing their pursuit of the captors behind the deadly escape games. Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) stand out as two of the few characters in a sequel who seem to still be scarred by the traumatic events of their experiences. Far too often we see characters go through their life like they are able to put trauma in the back of their mind like nothing more than a field trip or vacation. Sure, there might be a jump scare to show that characters still remember the harrowing events, but Zoey is seeking professional help. This movie handles Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in ways that make the characters more grounded. Zoey is going to therapy and Ben is suffering from nightmares. For a while, I was impressed that this movie is trying to give more depth to these characters as they are pretty wooden in the first film, but once the action picks up, it seems all character traits and growth are dropped. They very quickly become just two people in a group that have the unique character trait of being in a horror movie.
After tracking the evil Minos company to New York, they are tricked into chasing a thief into a subway car where the games begin soon after. We get quick introductions to our new “champions,” but they are really nothing more than names — one is a priest, another can’t feel pain, and one is an influencer. And you would think any of those characteristics would come into play, but they are nothing more than introduced and ignored until it’s convenient for the plot. This is where I figured out that this movie is misplaced in the franchise. We go from the first movie to the sequel with multiple survivors. Imagine this movie coming after three or four other movies in which we have characters from each movie finally meeting up. As they get killed off, the loss would mean something more. Instead, the fact that these are former survivors plays no merit in who these characters are.
By now the stage has been set and the formula repeated. The fact that we have former survivors is the concept that tries to make Tournament of Champions stand out from its predecessor, but the new overarching ideas stops there. There are six people trapped in a room and if they don’t use the clues to solve the puzzles, they die. By this point, I can almost respect the movie from not going the “higher body count” path. There are rules for them to abide by and they stick to the rules. If there is anything truly special about the Escape Room franchise, the concept is engaging enough to be entertaining for the run time given.
The puzzles and rooms continue to be fun with this sequel. The subway puzzle is clever, the bank is exhilarating and plays with expectations with the use of lasers akin to what you would find in a Resident Evil movie, and the New York City room truly builds the tension. There is just one room on the beach that is kind of a mess. The mechanics are hard to follow as a quick sand-like trap is triggered, but it feels more like water and I have no clue what our heroes can and cannot do to survive. For some of the rooms (The Bank) the tension is perfect, and a wrong move means death. For the beach, it is impossible to feel anything because what kills one character, another is able to move through it freely.
This brings me to the major issue with this movie: it does not feel well thought out. This movie is trying to present you with everything at once. It is not so much world building as it is a world dump. The idea of a killer escape room is a brilliant concept that can build on the already established fanbase that made the first two Saw movies hits, but the concept is as far as we go with this. The first movie tried to introduce a villain attached to a mysterious cooperation that allowed Zoey and Ben to fight something in future movies. This movie brought on a number of twists and turns, but there is just so much happening so fast. The idea of a killer escape room does not need twists at the end to be interesting. And if it does, it doesn’t need every idea in one or two movies. This franchise could have some really interesting growth and layers if they would give it time, but this is like a child who wants his made up superhero to have every power.
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions tries to keep this surprise franchise chugging, but if they continue to use every surprise in every movie, the series is not going to leave any more puzzles to solve. I am all for movies following their own rules, but somehow I watched a sequel to a movie and nothing has changed from where I found the characters from where I found them (albeit some of them are dead now…). The first movie introduced a larger story to be told and Tournament of Champions failed to add any new layers. I will be there if another door is unlocked to reveal another movie because I am this far in. I can’t recommend this movie to everyone, but I can’t say there is nothing intriguing. The plot is easy enough to follow as a basic premise, but impossible to keep track of as the film winds down because it doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. The clues point to this being a horror thriller, but as you continue to put the pieces together, this turns out to be a convoluted conspiracy movie, and that is not what I signed up for.
Grade: C+