Netscape_Navigator

This was fun and suspenseful. The characters are written in a very basic way, but just enough to move along with the plot.

The most annoying character was the businessman. It's unrealistic that a person in that position wouldn't know how to talk to other humans. In general, the writers had characters say things that made so little sense. For example, the businessman made a comment about "survival of the fittest," after one of their friends had died, except she died sacrificing herself. One of the characters corrects him on that, and so then he says let's not waste her sacrifice. Ok, that line makes sense, but why would he even say that first line in the first place?

There was another part where the businessman tried to insinuate that another character had caused the death of another. So that character the starts defending himself, and the businessman cuts him off and says to forget all that and to get back on task or something. Wait, YOU'RE the one that just accused him of MURDER, what do you mean "forget all that," ***you're the one that brought it up.***

The biggest thing that annoyed me was the way the girl reacted at the end when she went with the police back to the initial escape room, which is now in a completely burned up state since that's how they left it originally (it burned up after they left). She storms in and starts frantically talking about how this was the lobby, and how such and such was over here, and just going on and on. Let me break this down....

* First off, why is she so SURPRISED that the room looks like this now?? How's it supposed to look? You have no idea exactly what happened to the place after you and your friends crawled through the duct. But, you have some idea that it probably burned right? Then.....how is the way the room looks now NOT consistent with that? In other words, what is it about the way the room looks now that immediately triggered her alarm bells that "omg, someone is trying to cover their tracks by making it look like the escape room never existed and that I'm crazy." What are you talking about, this looks EXACTLY the way I'd expect an escape room to look after an inferno had gone through it. And if she didn't know that an inferno had gone through it, then she has even less reason to be surprised about the way it looks now since she has no idea what happened to it after they left. It looks like a crazy room where crazy stuff happened. Her reaction would've made more sense if the place had been in *pristine* condition.

* She's frantically going on and on about what the room looked like as if someone had already doubted her. No one had even said anything yet, and she's already reacting like her story is suspicious, trying with all her might to convince people that for all she knew, already believed her.

* When she does mention some area of the room and what it used to be, the policeman IMMEDIATELY says there's no evidence of that. So that's it. You're not going to ask any questions, you just immediately assume she must be crazy?

It's really not that hard to write good dialogue. Yes, it's hard to write a story, but dialogue isn't hard. You just picture what a normal human being would say given that circumstance, however fantastical or not.

That's my number one screaming plothole in the hole movie that I can't ignore - why didn't they just immediately call 911?

Evan and his girlfriend gets into an argument, and at one point he takes a step towards her and she steps back quickly and falls and hits her head. Why wouldn't you call 911 for help? Is it because they had done illegal drugs so was afraid of the consequences for that, whatever that may be? If you had done illegal drugs, and something happens to where your sister or daughter is not moving, would you not call 911? And how can you even assume for sure they're dead? You're not a medical expert, even if the person doesn't seem like they're breathing, wouldn't you call for help just for any potential life saving techniques? Wouldn't you EXHAUST the possibilities instead of assuming the default position of, "they're not breathing, must be dead." Again, imagine if you find your daughter lifeless and not breathing, are you going to conclude that they're dead, or go to the ends of the earth to do whatever you can to save them (call 911)? You have no idea what methods or techniques are used, or what miraculous thing might happen.

Also, tied for the most annoying thing in this movie is the fact that Evan doesn't actually clearly tell his friends watching on video chat, "no, I didn't do anything, she slipped and hit her head." Not ONCE does he say this in this critical time. He passively mentions it much later in the movie, but at this time when some of his friends are sort of suspecting him, or just generally unsure of what happened (since they only heard it, and then saw the aftermath), he never actually says anything to clear up his name.

The type of excuses he's giving are the kind you'd give if you did accidentally go a bit too far, and now are unsure if you would have legal liability. For example, if he had sort of brushed her off or dislodged himself from her if she had been getting physical with him, etc. Yeah, that I can see. Because technically your physical action of shoving them off made them fall and hit their head and die, apparently. But nope, he literally did NOTHING here. And this idiot not only doesn't deny it, he also doesn't call for help, AND he goes running off into the night like some lunatic, as if he's already a known fugitive. And unless I missed something, even though I thought people weren't allowed to be driving during the quarantine, his friend clearly was, so why was Evan driving as if was afraid to get caught? And his friends are not any smarter since none of them brought up the points I brought up.

Also, the whole argument that started this off was unrealistic to me. The girlfriend admits that she had a threesome in high school, and the boyfriend, Evan, understandably gets a little upset about it and can't stop asking her about it. Then, a bit later, two of their friends on video chat starts getting intimate with each other before finally shutting off the video. When the video is shut off, Evan makes a comment about how it was just getting good. She takes offense to that (for some reason), and he claims it was a joke. The girlfriend's mood was completely unrealistic here. She had no reason to even feel unhappy, LET ALONE mad. Doesn't this sound confusing even reading this? You're wondering, "wait, she's mad? About what?" Yeah, my point exactly. Her whole mood DARKENED after the comment Evan made about the two friends that had been getting intimate on video. Ok, that's weird, yeah, but why would you be MAD at him for saying that, or mad at him for joking about it (whichever way you, as her, would've interpreted it). You might be playfully disgusted, but not the piercing anger she showed towards him.

Along those same lines, when he got mad at her for keeping the high school threesome she had a secret, her reaction to him is all wrong. Just put yourself in her shoes. So now your boyfriend is really upset about this news. Wouldn't you react more like, "hey, this was a long time ago, come on, it doesn't matter." Not exactly pleading with him, but just trying to maybe "bargain" with him to get him to see your side. Instead, she's taking OFFENSE to him being upset about the threesome. It's just not a natural reaction to me. You don't get OFFENDED at someone being mad at you, at least not at this point, and especially not with the way it was presented (on a tiny, tiny, level, there would be a super tiny bit of flattery you'd feel because someone is upset/jealous, which is rooted in how they feel about you. I think we all know that feeling). So given that, you'd almost playfully wave it off (secretly enjoying maybe just a little bit, that this person is jealous). However you might personally respond, turning cold, dark, and hateful is probably not what most of us would do.

I'm starting right off the bat with what to me was the biggest issue, I guess it's a plot hole.

When the police are there and they're talking to Sam Worthington and the hospital staff/doctors about his supposedly missing wife and daughter, eventually he tells everyone that he saw his wife and daughter get in the elevator so the daughter could get a CAT scan. So the police asks the doctor where that room is, and he says it's on the 3rd floor. Sam Worthington then tells everyone that that's not true, because he watched them get in the elevator and the elevator indicator lights showed them going to a basement level. The doctor argues and says he must be confused, because the CAT scan room is on the 3rd.

So then they all still go up to the 3rd floor, and to no one's surprise, his wife and daughter are not there. As soon as the little debate started about where the CAT scan room was, shouldn't Sam Worthington have said, "ok, forget about what the *NAME* of the place is that you took my wife and daughter, because WHEREVER that place is, it's in the basement. So if that's not that CAT scan room, because you say that's on the 3rd floor, then whatever, that's fine, but the BASEMENT is where I saw them go, so let's go there."

Why would he even waste time going up to the 3rd floor? After going, why didn't he then plead with them to now let's go please check out the basement, like he mentioned earlier? I guess that's probably not a plot hole, more like bad writing.

As anyone who's read my previous reviews knows, I don't care how outlandish, unbelievable, or magical a plot is as long the human beings in it make normal, human being choices and have proper reactions to what's going on around them. This is why the CAT scan thing was so frustrating to me.

In general, EVERYONE'S reactions were so frustrating to watch. It's just unrealistic to think that everyone in the hospital and even the police, would act with such coldness and no sympathy. They were actually annoyed by him. Everything he would tell them is met with an attitude, "oh geez, what now, you're disturbing me." Here's a man looking for his lost wife and child, and ok, if you suspect he's confused because of a head injury, you wouldn't react with a, "oh god, what do you want, you're talking crazy" type of a demeanor, you'd be more sympathetic. The reactions of the male policeman are particularly unrealistic. At one point he actually tells him to "pull himself together."

Overall I did like the suspenseful plot. Would've given it an 8 if not for the bad directing of the actors here. They all had the wrong emotional reactions, which had to be the fault of the director, since it's not just an actor or three doing that, but EVERYONE.