Escape Room (2019) Review

"Surviving is a choice!"

-Jason Walker

Six strangers have puzzle boxes delivered to them.  Once they solve them, they receive an invitation to play through an escape room and, if they beat it, win a large cash prize.  They quickly realize the rooms are full of deadly traps and the game makers know every detail about their lives.  The six become determined to escape or die trying.

What Works:

I went into Escape Room expecting it to be very stupid, but I was hoping it would at least be fun...and it is.  I really did have a blast watching this film.  There are plenty of fun, exciting, and tense sequence and there is some solid humor, even if some of the jokes are obvious and dumb.

The first three rooms are definitely the highlights of the film.  The first is a waiting room and introduces us into what we're in for.  We see a lot of this one in the trailer, but it has a few fun surprises that they left out.  The second is a snow room and although the room itself is extremely nonsensical, the puzzles felt by far the most doable and realistic.  My favorite room is the upside down bar.  I love how this room plays out and it is by far the most tense and exciting.

The actors all do a solid job with the material they are given.  There are plenty of flaws in Escape Room, which I will get into, but they aren't the fault of the actors.  Tyler Labine is probably the best of the six.  I didn't realize he was in the film and it was a pleasant surprise to see him here.  He is also the most fun character and gets almost all of the good lines.

Finally, the ending is one of the most WTF things I have ever seen.  It feels nothing like the rest of the film and it should have been the opening sequence of the sequel, not the ending of the original.  But watching it was such an enjoyable experience.  My jaw was dropped in disbelief.  I could not comprehend what I was seeing and when the credits rolled, I said very loudly, "What the actual f**k did I just watch?"  I know what I'm saying doesn't sound like a positive, and it wasn't good filmmaking by any means, but it was such a wild and novel thing to witness that I couldn't help but enjoy the absurd nonsense.

What Sucks:

The writing is atrociously bad in this film.  It's some of the worst dialogue I've seen in recent memory.  Some of the humor is frankly cringe worthy.  The worst part is the opening scene where we see a character trying to solve a room alone and they are talking to themselves.  The dialogue they use in this scene where the character is explaining what they are doing and thinking doesn't work at all and feels very forced.

To continue with this opening scene, the character in it is one of the six main characters.  Most of the movie takes place before this scene, so a lot of the tension is removed surrounding this character.  We know they are going to survive for most of the movie.  This isn't as big a deal at first, there are plenty of other characters to worry about, but as the cast dies off, this becomes more and more of a problem and deflates the tension.  

The 4th and 5th rooms aren't nearly as interesting as the first three.  The way the characters figure out the 4th room feels extremely convenient.  Don't get me wrong, most of the discoveries by the characters in this movie feel convenient, but this room was the biggest offender.  The characters make some big leaps in logic and it's tough to figure out why some of them are doing what they are doing.  The 5th room is very short and just not as interesting as it could have been.

The finale is also pretty generic.  I've seen this 3rd act play out in plenty of other films.  If you've seen the ending of the Cube films or Unfriended: Dark Web, you've seen the ending of Escape Room.  It's lame and anticlimactic.

To go back to the WTF final sequence again, I will say that this should not have been in this film, but the opening of the next.  It is very out of place and I know that it will bother most people even if I enjoyed it.

Verdict:

Escape Room was exactly what I wanted it to be: dumb fun.  There was some decent humor and intense sequences with a truly bizarre and memorable ending, but the 3rd act is extremely generic, the later rooms suck, the opening sequence ruins some of the tension, and the dialogue is often abysmal.  If you're okay with seeing a dumb movie, than I would recommend this one.  If not, stay away.  But I enjoyed the film for what it was and would love an even goofier sequel.

 6/10: Okay