A Little Escapism in the Movie Theater… But Just a Little

Escape Room, Directed by Adam Robitel

If you’re an escape room fan or a movie buff, you’ve probably heard about the new movie, Escape Room. A fellow Junkie and myself (both of us being movie buffs and escape room buffs) decided to check it out.

Debuting on January 4th, 2019, the movie is no blockbuster, but it does seem like it’s done well for itself at the box office. With a production budget of $9 million and a total gross (to date) of $57.9 million, it should be among the top 50 movies of 2019 when all is said and done (if box office numbers are similar to those we saw in 2018).

What’s This Movie About?

So, a handful of seemingly unrelated strangers each receives a cryptic invitation to try their hand at escaping the world’s best and most immersive escape room and are promised a prize of $10,000 if they escape!

(Hint-i-ty, hint, hint to any of our escape room-owning readers, huge cash prizes may REVOLUTIONIZE the industry. The Junkies are available to run pilot programs. Please contact us).

The escapees soon find out that the puzzles, and the danger they present, are all too real. And before they know it, they find themselves in an “escape or die” situation.

Our Impressions

The movie was…good. But as I said above, no blockbuster. I have to give some credit to Sony/Columbia pictures for trying to do something original. The reason I say “trying” is because the the movie didn’t feel original. While the plot and setting were welcome elements of originality, it ended up feeling like a Saw wanna-be.

The fun part of the movie was trying to figure out the room’s puzzles along with the characters. Like a total boss, my fellow Junkie successfully solved a puzzle BEFORE the the poor souls on screen! (Heh, rookies). We saw some pretty unique, if not totally unrealistic, escape related stuff like room themes, manufactured environments, riddles, and puzzles. I wonder (or do I wish?) if any of the puzzles in the movie will one day wind up in a real life escape room that me and my fellow Junkies will run across… leaving aside the death and mutilation of course.

For me, the movie really fell short in the plot department. I was really let down by the movie’s ending which proved to have that recycled Hollywood feel. The movie’s jumping off point (seemingly random strangers locked in room) wrote a pretty big check that never got cashed. The movie’s “big questions” were left largely unanswered. And the few answers we did get were pretty disappointing.

All and all, I’m glad I saw it. If this movie was on your list I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s got just enough entertainment value to be worth the ticket price. 3/5