Her arc in the series is all the more compelling for it. What it means, principally, is that Zoey is motivated internally, not externally. When it comes to puzzle solving, Zoey contributes a great deal, though her survival is equally predicated on her peers, many of whom reach the tantalizing answer before she does. She isn’t performing feats outside the constraints of human ability. Zoey is capable of surviving, but not too capable.
It’s the same stellar balance that rendered Sharni Vinson’s Erin a fan favorite in Adam Wingard’s You’re Next. Zoey Davis as a character is perfectly conceived, striking an adroit balance between resourcefulness and terror. Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell) and Ben Miller (Logan Miller) in ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS.
Yet, it’s in Escape Room where she really comes into her own. She astounded in Netflix’s Lost in Space reboot and was absolutely transcendent in Bones and All. And that it not only works, but works remarkably well, is almost exclusively on account of Russell’s Davis. En route to Manhattan, she and Ben are once again trapped in a game (sort of like Amanda in Saw II), and alongside the other survivors, must overcome several devilishly puzzling rooms. In Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, that’s exactly what she endeavors to do. Having imbued herself with a newfound urgency and endearing combativeness, she’s determined to stop the game for good. Sure, the mechanics and infrastructure don’t make any sense, and that incredulity is compounded when Zoey spots newspaper articles on the deaths of the other players, killed in “accidents,” no mention of the game. Zoey is ostensibly left for dead, only to arrive in deus ex machina fashion at the end, saving Logan Miller’s Ben from the “Gamemaster.” Every year, he assembles a group of people with something in common so wealthy clients can bet on who is most likely to survive ( Hostel, anyone). Better to stay where they are and take a stand rather than continue the perverse experiment. She starts smashing cameras, tossing set dressing around, and demanding the other players quit the game. Zoey realizes this first, and in a complete shift in character, loses it. All is revealed-each player was the sole survivor (not the Eliza Dushku kind) of a terrible accident, and the game they’re trapped in endeavors to reveal whether that was mere luck or something else. The surviving players of the game arrive in a hospital room. A dull, nice caricature that everyone could relate to that paradoxically meant no one could really relate at all. Ostensibly, Zoey was horror’s worst impulse. A meek bystander, capable of solving puzzles, but reticent to speak or act beyond that. Russell’s Zoey was the audience entry point, and for the first two acts of the movie, she was dull.
0 kommentar(er)
