I kinda sorta liked the first Escape Room film… the suspense really wasn’t there but the characters were ok and I rather liked the ending. So I was surprised to see a sequel coming, but I wasn’t dreading it. I had soft hopes that maybe they could pull off something unique and interesting.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions picks up with the survivors of the first film. They are back but haven’t quite managed to bring down the evil corporation that stuck them in the killer escape room. But they are working on it… by which I mean, they immediately get captured and put into another escape room. This time with people who survived previous escape rooms too.

I think this film has better suspense and tension in its more elaborate escape rooms. That works to the movie’s benefit, even if it is ultimately PG-13 Saw with smarter people shouting out clues at each other. But at least the puzzles and solutions usually work… though there were a few leaps of logic that reminded me of 60s era Batman puzzling out the Riddler’s latest dastardly plot.

The ending though was a bit more predictable and standard for this kind of film. So the flick ultimately reverses what worked and didn’t work with its original film. And now I’m less interested in a sequel… though I guess they might be able to pull something out. Maybe.

It’s not a bad time at the theater (or streaming). Pretty good suspense film with some pretty good trapped room escapes. Not perfect at all, but it’s putting in the effort.

Score: 75