Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)    Columbia/Horror-Thriller    RT: 88 minutes    Rated PG-13 (violence, terror/peril, strong language)    Director: Adam Robitel    Screenplay: Will Honley, Maria Melnik, Daniel Tuch and Oren Uziel    Music: John Carey and Brian Tyler    Cinematography: Marc Spicer    Release date: July 16, 2021 (US)    Cast: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya Moore, Holland Roden, Thomas Cocquerel, Carlito Olivero, Lucy Newman-Williams, Matt Esof, Scott Coker.    Box Office: $25.3M (US)/$66M (World)

Rating: ***

 I didn’t expect to like the first Escape Room when it came out two years ago. It bore all the signs of a stinker- e.g. early January release date, PG-13 rating and a premise that’s essentially a toned-down version of the Saw movies. Despite these factors, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It appears others shared my opinion. It ended up being a moderate hit at the box office bringing in $57M on a $9M budget.

 I wasn’t too surprised when a sequel was announced. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions was originally slated for release last year, but was delayed due to COVID-19. It got moved around a lot on the schedule- at one point, it was scheduled to open on Jan. 1 of this year- before landing a mid-summer release date. I can’t say it was one of my most anticipated titles of 2021, but I wasn’t dreading it like Space Jam 2. The previews looked good, but we all know how reliable they are, don’t we? I’m happy to announce that Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is a pretty good horror-thriller and a very good sequel.

 Director Adam Robitel picks up right where he left off in the previous movie with surviving “sole survivors” Zoe (Russell, Waves) and Ben (Miller, Love, Simon) heading to Manhattan to confront Minos, the shadowy organization behind the deadly escape rooms. She wants them to be held accountable for their actions, especially since the police didn’t believe her story. They manage to find their corporate HQ by way of coordinates hidden in the company logo. One there, they’re lured onto a subway car which turns out to be the first of the new death traps. It also turns out the other passengers- Rachel (Roden, Teen Wolf), Brianna (Moore, Pose), Nathan (Cocquerel, Table 19) and Theo (Olivero, Bad Samaritan)- are winners of previous escape room challenges. Together, they have to think their way out of deadly escape rooms designed to look like a bank lobby, a picturesque beach, a NYC street and a child’s bedroom. Naturally, some will not make it out alive.

 Does anybody mind if I dispense with all the usual ado and get right to the point? I like Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. It’s as good as the first one in my not at all humble opinion. It’s surprisingly clever for an inherently silly movie. It doesn’t just rehash the first movie; it ultimately builds on it by introducing conspiracy into the mix. This is NOT a spoiler! Haven’t we learned by now that anytime a mysterious corporation is involved, there’s always conspiracy afoot? This might be a SPOILER. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions just scratches the surface of this notion. There is more story to tell; a third movie is all but guaranteed.

 The acting is about what you’d expect. Russell makes an appealing heroine, one whose confidence has increased since we last saw her. Ben has his act a little more together this time out. He’s sober and not as much of an a**hole. This is pretty much it for character development. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions doesn’t waste time on exposition; the characters are little more than pieces on a giant playing board. Each one has a defining trait (e.g. inability to feel physical pain) rather than a personality. One isn’t around long enough to even bother learning his/her name. As such, we’re not all that emotionally invested in them. Then again, how much did we really know about the many victims of Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger?

 The escape rooms in Escape Room: Tournament of Champions are a lot cooler than the traps in the most recent Saw movie. It’s tense watching the players try to find all the clues while time runs out. At the same time, the movie is fairly predictable. There’s never any doubt who will make it out of the rooms and who won’t. There’s also a plot twist that isn’t so surprising if you think about it. It helps that Robitel kicks things off with a quick recap of the first movie before continuing the story. It looks to me like they’re setting up a Saw-like franchise that will yield several installments. I can think of worse things than future Escape Room movies. If they’re as much fun as Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, count me in each time.