Jigsaw

Despite the last SAW movie being called "The Final Chapter" 2017 brought us yet another addition to the franchise and it's a real mixed bag.

I think the SAW series started off very well, they showed real promise were clever well constructed movies but alas alike so many other horror franchises it got milked into mediocrity.

The movies gradually got worse and worse and they felt desperate, blatant cash ins and it was such a shame that such a franchise had become tarnished. These things need to know when to call it a day and SAW didn't.

So here we have another game, another spate of killings in gruesome fashion but this time it looks like Jigsaw is really back from the grave!

Sprinkled with good ideas Jigsaw is certainly an improvement on other recent efforts and delivers a few twists along the way. It doesn't however come close to the dizzying heights of the first few films.

I'd advise fans of the franchise give this a go but truly believe that this should be the last. Let SAW die before it becomes another franchise whose credibility is gone because it's creators didn't know when to stop.

The Good:

Passable twist

Tobin Bell

The Bad:

Still not coming close to its origins

Essentially more of the same

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I still love Jigsaws style and struggle to see him as an antagonist

Very disappointing. Not only they rehashed many ideas from the previous movies, but the final reveal was also done SEVERAL times in the previous saws.

I won't go into details because of spoilers, but every time some plot twist happened in the movie I was like "Wait, they already did that in Saw X". In fact, I since I saw all the Saws (pun intended) I was able to correctly guess what the final reveal will be because like I said, they already done it before.

And most of the traps were just plain dumb, some of them giving a lot of room for cheating, which broke the immersion for me, because the "gamers" were acting like idiots who for some reason switched their brains off and walked into them like sheep. Other traps required pretty much clairvoyance from the Jigsaw, because to set up them the way they went, he would have to see the fricking future.

Early Saws used to be great, but this movie, and several previous ones, are just plain bad and the franchise needs to be put to rest at this point. And if the decide to make another one, just don't rehash the same stuff over and over and over again.

Although its potential shines brighter than what it became, and it certainly has its clunkier moments, Jigsaw manages to shine among the Saw sequels with its ambitious approach and purely entertaining storyline. I know this film certainly has a lot of haters, and I can understand their dislike for the film to a certain level. Its ambitious, and at times feels like if just a little more effort was made, it could have been great, which is certainly disappointing. However, I appreciate Jigsaw immensely for its cleverness and well crafted storyline. It's a very entertaining film, unlike 4-6 you won't feel moments of boredom throughout. Some traps can be a bit basic, but others are incredibly well done, perhaps some of the best in the franchise in general. It's full of so many twists and turns and works on so many levels it's hard to believe that they pulled it off at least somewhat at all. The cinematography is excellent, very different from the grotesque look and atmosphere of the other films, providing a much needed and refreshing point of view. Tobin Bell's performance is excellent, with Matt Passmore and Hannah Emily Anderson providing some excellent leading performances as well. In the end, Jigsaw is a flawed puzzle, but it still makes a beautiful picture.

My Rating: 7.4/10.

Since the Saw franchise is one of my biggest guilty pleasures when it comes to horror, I've been hoping for a new installment ever since The Final Chapter was supposed to end the franchise back in 2010. Even though the movies got progressively worse, there is something about this franchise that always draws me back and makes me want to re-watch it.

I had high expectations for Jigsaw because of two reasons: one, the producers stated in an interview that they were offered more than a hundred scripts for a new movie from different writers, but had never been pleased with any of them until they discovered a script so good, which ultimately got picked to be adapted; second, the Spierig brothers, Jigsaw's directors, had previously directed Predestination, such a smart and enticing sci-fi time- travel movie that I liked quite a lot.

After seeing Jigsaw, I left the theater disappointed. I'll start with what I enjoyed:

The score by Charlie Clouser is just as fabulous as it has always been and manages to go in line perfectly with each scene.

The performances didn't bother me at all, although none of the actors really gets to shine. Laura Vandervoort and Paul Braunstein stood out here, with the latter generating some funny moments worthy of admiration.

The direction was very polished and the movie was competently filmed, but the Spierig brothers weren't given much to show their creativity on. This leads me to the negatives.

The CGI is very good. There is, however, one scene in which I was feeling as if I was watching one of the most recent Resident Evil movies and that didn't really work for me.

What I didn't like:

The ideas in this movie and its overall plot are somewhat underdeveloped. I know that this is supposed to be a new "beginning" for these movies, but as a franchise starter, I wanted more to be explored. The plot falls flat because the movie cuts from scene to scene so swiftly and tries to cram multiple narratives into 85 minutes, that ultimately none of them makes an impact.

Saw is known for its visceral traps and torture devices, so I was looking forward to seeing more of that. However, the game presented in this movie has next to no memorable traps. That is because they are a lot tamer than what we've seen before and they simply can't hold a candle to all the ingenious traps from the past movies.

The character development is another issue in this movie. The characters are so uni-dimensional, with some of them being there only to fill the screen. And I'm referring to some of the main casting here. Also, character arcs are left unfinished and the movie felt like it ended when the most important part of the story was about to happen.

The editing undermines what could've been some very suspenseful scenes because of its sloppiness, by cutting from one narrative (the game) to the other (the investigation) at random moments.

Now, it all comes down to the twist. Was it good and unexpected? Well, no, not really. It's not necessarily because you can predict it from miles away (for which the movie offers hints throughout the run-time) due to its small set of characters, but because it had no resonance for me. It didn't blow me away and you could've predicted it from the marketing of the movie alone. Just like with the traps, it just doesn't have the same visceral feel as the past movies and it doesn't really make you crave for the release of the next chapter.

Overall, Jigsaw sets itself apart from the previous movies in the series with the help of the two directors who manage to make the movie look stylish and slick, but ultimately, it doesn't succeed in creating the sense of urgency that some of the old movies had and, sadly, disappoints on almost every other level. And yes, there are fan-service moments, but as a fan of this franchise, I felt very little excitement when they happened.

Hopefully, if the movie does well in terms of box office, the sequel will improve upon this franchise "reinvention".

I was a huge fan of the original series, although as more films were released the thrill lessened. The first is a Classic and may have one of the best twists of all time, and that's what makes it such a great film. It wasn't about the horror.

This one, although entertaining, same awkward acting by many characters, same grizzly traps, and most of all a twist, which I believe everyone expects, however I feel there's some major plot holes that leaves me feeling dissatisfied. Of course I won't ruin for anyone, but this film reaches far, way too far, in my humble opinion.

Very reminiscent of the original, but fails in the end. Maybe they'll do better next time because a new Saw film is always welcome to take a swing.

Note: the red headed coroner was super hot, even before she let her hair down and took her glasses off. Way too hot to be a coroner. (not being sexist, just keeping it real)