Starring: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya Moore, Holland Roden, Thomas Cocquerel, Carlito Olivero, Deborah Ann Woll Director: Adam Robitel ADAM ROBITEL’S 2019 horror flick “Escape Room” had all the signs of a flash in the pan: early January release and a gimmicky premise based around a live entertainment trend. “Escape Room” was just that: a series of high-stakes, life-or-death puzzles, but thanks to the cast and characters, plus a fantastic final girl in Taylor Russell, it worked. Operating in the mode of the “Saw” and “Final Destination” franchises, there could be a long future for “Escape Room” movies, and the sequel, “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions,” even leaner and meaner than the first, proves the staying power of this budding series. Things begin with a strange recap, which plays like a TV drama’s “previously on” preface and are immediately followed by one scene in which Zoey talks to a therapist whose name could be Dr. Exposition. Still unable to convince anyone that a secretive group of billionaires is staging elaborate game-of-death escape rooms for its own amusement, Zoey has kept investigating on her own. She believes the group, Minos, operates from a New York City address, but hasn’t been able to conquer her fear of flying and go there with fellow survivor Ben (Logan Miller). The doctor (Lucy Newman-Williams) thinks getting on an airplane will help cure Zoey’s delusions. Instead, Zoey finally decides to drive to NYC — where she and Ben find nothing but an abandoned building. They’re robbed, though, and a footchase with the thief leads them into the subway. There they inexplicably (really: the movie doesn’t even try to explain) wind up in a subway car whose other inhabitants are all the sole survivors of their own escape-room traumas. The car turns into an electrified trap, and they all realize it’s going to be a very long day. (Or, if they’re unlucky, a very short one.) By the low standards of cheapo genre fare, “Escape Room” drew its characters fairly well, casting engaging actors and giving them just enough backstory to matter. Here, we get ciphers we’ve met before and/or would rather not know. Which would you rather be stuck in a deathtrap with: the alcoholic fallen priest (Thomas Cocquerel) or the Instagram influencer (Indya Moore)? Don’t think about it too hard, because they’ll both probably be dead soon. Robitel and his screenwriters (four this time, up from two) struggle to come up with tricky ways for their heroes to face and evade death. Last time, they were going to burn up or freeze to death, be poisoned or fall fifteen stories. Here, the bottom-line danger may be just as elemental (acid, lasers, electrification), but the specifics are more contrived and convoluted, overbusy in a way that emphasizes how unsatisfying most of the movie’s riddles and puzzles are. Nothing here comes anywhere close to the excitement offered in the last film’s upside-down pool hall, which also contained more convincing moments of heroic teamwork than Tournament can muster. The sequel undercuts some of that heroism, in a way, in a twisty development that may be spoiled for those who look closely at its credits beforehand. But the revelation that Minos wants something specific from Zoey beyond her grisly death would seem a promising way to open up the saga. The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen. (SD-Agencies) | 