240. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions; movie review

 

 

ESCAPE ROOM - TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

Cert 15

88 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong threat, violence

The busiest I have seen a cinema since the return from Covid lockdown was screen 3 at Derby Odeon on a Thursday evening.

I was left wondering why after watching Escape Room, Tournament of Champions.

Of the original Escape Room, I wrote: "I can certainly see why a $9m-budget movie has made nearly $100m."

This time the budget has been doubled but the effect is diluted because of the overwhelming sense of deja vu.

Indeed, it even has a couple of familiar characters - Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell) and Ben Miller (Logan Miller).

They survived the original Escape Room but Zoey suffers from a post-traumatic stress disorder and receives counselling from a therapist.

The latter wants her to confront her fears by flying but Zoey parks that plan and instead drives to New York to confront those behind the game.

Yep, I'm not sure I understand the logic behind that either.

Anyway, it is no surprise whatsoever that she and Logan end up in another game, threatening their and others' lives unless they can answer riddles within a short time limit.

Mrs W and I have tried an Escape Room with friends and we would have been bumped off at the first hurdle.

Thankfully, Zoey has a very sharp mind and she can come with the answers - or so we think.

Because the truth is that Adam Robitel's movie is merely a springboard for another follow-up.

And with the freshness having already expired, I dread to imagine how stale the next instalment will be.

Reasons to watch: If you haven't seen the original

Reasons to avoid: Treads over the same ground.

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 4/10

Did you know? The first live escape room was built by the company SCRAP in Japan in 2007 with creator Takao Kato aiming to create a fully immersive game in which players had to solve a series of puzzles and riddles to escape from a locked room.

The final word. Adam Robitel: "Coming out of a pandemic in a way now, like where we all feel like we don’t have agency over our own lives, that there’s powers that are influencing the world events and there’s a lot of conspiracy theories in this post-truth world. The idea of this omnipresent force that can be mined for many, many things." Nightmarish Conjurings

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