Formula: Escape Room + Several Sequels We Didn't See
Is this an effective Escape Room movie? Yes. There are several escape rooms. They are inventive and creepy. The escapes are tense and well-constructed. I got what I needed to from this movie. Tournament of Champions does feel like a missed opportunity though.
The film is set shortly after the firm one. The two survivors, Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller), are struggling with PTSD from the events in the first Escape Room. They've located where they think the Minos corporation is headquartered and go to New York City, hoping to expose them, since people still don't believe them. It turns out that Minos is a step ahead of them, of course, and tricks them into another escape room. The difference this time is that everyone one in this escape room was the sole survivor from a previous escape room. From there, it's what you'd expect. Intricate puzzles, daring escapes, and a few deaths along the way. Minos has upped their game after Taylor exposed some weaknesses in the first movie.
The cast is a little less notable this time. I still like Russell and Miller in their roles. It's cool seeing Indya Moore from Pose show up. The rest of the cast is a little more anonymous than Deborah Ann Woll and Tyler Labine in the first movie.
I definitely feel the increased budget this time. It jumped from ~$5 million to ~$15 million. Everything is more intricate. They spend more time in the beginning and end not in escape rooms. This never needs to be an expensive franchise, however it's nice to see them able to flex a little more.
I don't love this as a second movie though. Perhaps the MCU has broken me, but a Tournament of Champions would be a lot more interesting if I had familiarity with more characters. How cool would it be to have seen Indya Moore and Holland Roden's movies too? Then this movie would come along, bringing everyone together. Since everyone is a lead in a past movie, I genuinely wouldn't know how it would play out. Who would live and die? Because, this movie sure has a lot of plot armor. Based on only a few characters already being familiar, I knew exactly who would survive this movie, and it even retroactively removed some past stakes. By doing a sequel like this, they are removing a great deal of the fun of franchise potential. Frankly, I don't really care about the Minos corporation. The more I find out about them, the more I have to think about how feasible any of this is. This franchise is where Saw was after 4-5 movies. Taylor Russell and Ben Miller aren't the stars of this franchise. It works without them fine. The escape rooms are the stars. I wish they'd explored that more. Instead, I feel like we're tied to Russell and Miller, and the balance of escape room and corporate thriller is going to move in the wrong direction from here.
Overall, Tournament of Champions is about as good as the first movie. It leaves me much less excited for the franchise moving forward though.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
After the Credits
Audiences intuitively know the rule that if we don't see someone die onscreen, they aren't really dead. Offscreen deaths are lies that we accept because we understand the logistics of how movies and contract lengths work. However, actually telling the audience in the movie that offscreen deaths are never deaths takes away all stakes. The one absolute I have to be able to buy into to make these movies work is that people die in the escape rooms. I was impressed when the first movie actually killed Deborah Ann Woll. She was the obvious survivor to me with her stature among the rest of the cast. That she comes back retroactively nerfs the first movie. Now I'm thinking did I really see Jay Ellis and Tyler Labine die in the first movie? Maybe they just passed out. Nik Dodani is probably indisputably dead, or could they have swapped him out under the lake with a really convincing sex doll? 100% Indya Moore and Holland Roden are coming back for part three, covered in acid damage. I cannot express how dumb I think it was to pull the "offscreen deaths don't count" card and bring back Woll. They sanded off all the edges of this franchise.
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