Escape Room

Ever participated in an escape room? You may rethink participating again based on this movie. It definitely gave a “Saw” feel, making you rethink what you’ve done that could possibly land you into one of these situations. You couldn’t possibly deserve to have something like this happen to you in real life…

If you haven’t seen this movie and don’t want spoilers, don’t read any further. This is your warning.

Escape Room was an interesting concept. Not so much an interesting movie. Don’t get me wrong I paid attention to the twists and turns, but honestly can they even be considered that when the premise is being stuck in these rooms with twists and turns to solve the overall puzzle? Not truly surprising. The only real “twist” is the fight to live in spite of how the rooms are designed to kill all of the players at one stage or the next.

Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell) is a cute little black girl with a tragic past, like all of the other players, as the sole survivor of a plane crash that turns her into a quiet timid girl trying to advance in life. She’s extremely smart and needs something to push her to speak up a little more and be seen by the world around her. She finds her courage when she’s thrown into this puzzle room for the amusement of rich people with other sole survivors. Jason Walker (Jay Ellis - Insecure) is among the other players in the room with her that is the complete opposite of Zoey, cut throat and unapologetically consumed with survival.

All 6 players are picked off one by one as they progress through the rooms in some insane scenarios; drowning in an ice cold lake, falling 20 stories down an elevator shaft out of the cabin camouflaged as an upside down pool room, being shocked with defibrillators while breathing, and a fatal blow to the head in a trippy room after being dosed with some type of drug causing hallucinations. After making it to the end against all odds Zoey and Ben Miller (Logan Miller) win the game and escape the facility designed to kill them even if by some chance they did win and escape the maze. They make it to the police, but when they return to the scene of the crime it’s been broken down and scrubbed clean of all traces pertaining to the game.

Zoey is a D.O.P.E. black girl hands down. Smart as heck. Glad she had the opportunity to shine in the ways she did. The set up for a continued story with this secret society tracking her and making another attempt at her life seems like a desperate try to create a new “Saw” franchise, however; or maybe just a sequel, which I Still feel is unnecessary.

Overall, cool movie. I probably wouldn’t watch it too many times pass the first encounter unless it just happened upon the TV and I didn’t have anything else to watch. I’d say check it, but pay attention the first time. If you have to go back, it probably won’t hold your attention enough to sit through whatever you missed, plus the ending is easily understood without having all of the pieces.

Like I said, not too many twists and turns that actually surprised me. I wish there was a larger purpose behind why this organization does what they do; the motive was really lost on me. Main reason why this couldn’t be the next Jigsaw extravaganza.

If you watch/watched let me know what you think.

Be D.O.P.E.

Release Date: January 4, 2019
Where I watched: Amazon Firestick