Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021) Review

After watching the first film in the franchise I have now watched Escape Rooms sequel Tournament of Champions and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees two returning characters from the first film Zoey and Ben as they attempt to track down the company behind the escape rooms when they get dragged into another game. 

Main Character

Taylor Russell and Logan Miller are back as Zoey and Ben and similar to the previous film they are just functional. Despite the fact that they were in the previous film I didn't find their characters any more interesting, they were alright before and they're only alright here. The actors are trying and that is the credit I am giving them but they don't give you lots of reason to care and the forced connection between the two of them falls a bit flat. 

Supporting Characters

Continuing the them from above, the supporting characters are better here then the ones from the first film but they just fall a bit flat in the terms of characterisation and making the audience truly care about them. There were some interesting ideas and some okay characters but the film fails in creating an interesting group of characters to get invested in. 

Story

The story is better in this film as a few of the characters have some actual thought put into them. Also, despite the fact that the ending is absurd and elements of it don't make sense, I can't deny that it intrigued me and had me actually wanting to see a third film in the frachise. But there are so many elements of the film that make no sense and the issue is still there in making you care about these characters are the fact that they are in real danger. 

Script  

The script does hurt the film, the dialogue is clunky, cheesy and generic. It really holds the film back and really saddles these performers with dialogue that even the most experienced actors would struggle with. 

Style 

The style of the film is the one element that is really improved. The escape rooms are much bigger in stakes and style and it looks impressive, whoever, was the person behind the scenes that designed these rooms they deserve big credit as they are fun to watch. Also the pacing is very frantic which if the characters aren't going to be particularly interesting it allows us to watch them in perilous positions at least. 

Overall

Overall, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is an Average film that improves on the original. I would say it isn't a film worth going to the cinema to see but maybe Escape Room 3 will finally deliver a good film in this franchise. 

Rating - 5/10