Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: July 16, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
11
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
76
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJul 14, 2021
Make no mistake: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions may be fun, it’s also incredibly stupid. The premise makes no sense. The mechanics make no sense. The plot makes no sense. Look elsewhere for storytelling sanity. Look here if you want to see confident, creepy absurdity, with a ghoulish imagination and showmanship to spare. Read full review
67
The PlaylistNick AllenJul 16, 2021
While this second round proves why the first movie worked, it also brings the now-franchise closer to losing its spark. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsJul 15, 2021
Human error—or uncertainty—is the biggest source of tension in this movie, and it goes a long way towards making this sequel (a little) more than the sum of its flashy parts. You may not need another Escape Room, but this new one is good enough to leave you wanting more. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshJul 15, 2021
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is a pastiche of its predecessors, using this mosaic of tropes and formula familiarity as a shorthand to keep the film pared down to the basics of what exactly makes it tick: increasingly sadistic puzzles and a great cast of characters. Read full review
60
NMEAlex FloodFeb 14, 2023
At only 88 minutes, Tournament Of Champions is a super-quick shot of adrenaline – too short to grow boring, yet meaty enough to feel like value for money. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsJul 19, 2021
As a pure dilemma-fest, the movie basically works, resetting the clock scene by scene, making the joy of survival deliberately short-lived. The suspense works. Watching these people figure things out, just in the nick of time — except in the cases of the people who run out of time — doesn’t really get old, even if the movie somehow gets a little old. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJul 15, 2021
Even when it’s trying too hard, the very fact that it’s trying at all makes it hard to dislike. The rules might not make any sense but you’ll have fun playing along regardless. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJul 14, 2021
After 30 or 40 minutes, it becomes clear that, despite a few more callbacks, this is a more-of-the-same sequel, not a next-level sequel. Read full review
55
PolygonAusten GoslinJul 15, 2021
The sequel abandons clever mysteries in favor of more straightforward action-horror, losing some of what made the original special in the process. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleJul 19, 2021
Ultimately, Tournament of Champions remains a welcome balance of YA and horror, featuring inventive puzzle sequences with enough talent on both sides of the camera to consistently entertain. Read full review
47
Paste MagazineLex BriscusoJul 15, 2021
Sequels have a lot to prove by default, and by default I try to give them a bit more leniency. But there’s not much merit in the way Escape Room: Tournament of Champions skirts around the series’ rules and bends them out of shape, only to discard them when they matter most: In the script and story. Read full review
40
IGNKristy PuchkoJul 16, 2021
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions twists the puzzle premise of its hit predecessor into an unsolvable slog. Read full review
40
EmpireBen TravisJul 15, 2021
Slickly produced but seriously stupid, Tournament Of Champions won’t exactly have you running for the exits — but your brain cells might not escape the room intact. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis HarveyJul 15, 2021
Part of the problem is that since everything is at so incessant a fever pitch, suspense flattens rather than builds, and we don’t care much about characters who spend nearly all their time yelling instructions at each other. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 14, 2021
An underwhelming attempt to turn a tight little thriller into a sequel-spawning franchise, Adam Robitel’s Escape Room: Tournament of Champions lacks many of the original’s strengths while failing to improve on its more underdeveloped aspects. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 17, 2021
The actors could have given us more, but the mad rush to get where EVERYbody knows this thing is going (with an odd wrinkle or two) deprives them of that and us of the “escape” a better movie would have delivered. Read full review
25
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 15, 2021
The best thing about the Escape Room film series is that it gives audience members clear directions in the title about what they should immediately do: Escape. Room. Get out of that theater and go see Black Widow instead. Run for your lives — and sanity! Read full review
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