Saw VI (2009)

THIS REVIEW IS TRYING ITS HARDEST NOT TO SPOIL A SINGLE THING AND HOPEFULLY IT HASN'T, BUT HERE'S A WARNING JUST IN CASE!

I’m shocked I’m about to type this, but here we go: The 6^th Saw film is my favourite in the series. Seriously, I am not kidding. When watching the utter tripe we got from the 4^th and 5^th films, with a lacklustre 3^rd film, I thought the last two films would be awful!

It’s weird to think that, as I watch the Saw films, I think it should be a TV show. All of them seem like they should be hour long episodes in an American TV series. The flashbacks remind me of Lost and the crime segments remind me of CSI. Yet if it was an American TV show then it would have been cancelled because of Saw IV being so badly received, so not all would have turned out well for it.

I honestly don’t want to spoil any of the plot for this movie. It is great as a standalone piece of cinema. What I can say is the general premise of the film, as well as the opening. Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) has got away with pinning the Jigsaw copycat killings on Agent Strahm and is now assisting Jill (Betsy Russell) in carrying out John Kramer’s (Tobin Bell) final requests. This consists of making a man play a game where he has to decide on how much he values other people’s lives. Even saying that I have spoiled it slightly, but it’s okay, it is deeper than that.

The tests in this film are pretty damn good. They are simple, yet effective, not unlike the very first film’s game. They all consist of difficult decisions that weigh heavily on the subject’s mind when trying to figure out what to do in such a short period of time. The tests are honestly extremely suspenseful, unlike the tests in the other films, and you feel sorry for the man when he is trying to complete them.

The directing in this film has got a thousand times better, so much so that I feel I have overcome my epilepsy and motion sickness. The acting is so much better and the twists make sense and are suspenseful. It’s hard for me to comment on anything in this film without saying “I really liked it.” Well, Hoffman is transparently evil, but I’m OK with that.

Just... go watch this film. It’s great.

Now to watch the one that had the worst ratings. 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, eh? Pretty bad... Ah well, at least it’s the last one!

Final Verdict: 9/10

Saw III (2006)

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! 

You know that prediction of torture porn? The thing I HOPED this series didn’t devolve into? Well this is what has happened, and it is only 3 movies in.

OK, that’s kind of unfair. There isn’t much of this torture porn in the film, but that’s another area that this film falters in. When, on the few occasions, it shows the game going on, it is over the top with its torture of its victims and the death of one, who gets frozen, is utterly ridiculous. In fact, that woman is, for some reason or another, naked (or at least, I presume she is, all you see is breasts). This is the definition of torture porn and it is unnecessary.

The plot meanders through two hours of your precious time, going from the game to flashbacks to a woman attempting to assist a dying John Kramer (the Jigsaw Killer) so that he may survive through the test. Yet this isn’t after 15 minutes of uselessness as a detective discovers a dead body with the trademarks of the Jigsaw Killer, followed by her getting killed in a similar fashion and then another 10 minutes of setup until we can actually get to the plot. That’s 25 minutes of the film. Wasted.

And after this barely anything happens. The plot moves slowly, the characters are impossible to connect with and everything falls into place far too easily.

The entire film turns out to be a game for Amanda Young, Kramer’s apprentice. He wants to see if she is capable of keeping someone alive. You see, she has murdered people and creates games that are impossible to complete. Kramer made sure his games were possible to complete and has never murdered anyone.

But this all seems pointless when, in the first film, the only way Lawrence was allowed to escape was by killing Adam. He essentially condoned that murder and made it impossible for Adam to escape. I'm getting some mixed messages here!

On top of this, the game he set up for Amanda was reliant on her committing murder. He knew she would murder from the start, so why would he have her as an apprentice? This movie raises too many questions that the film doesn’t answer.

Plus, this actually turns into one great big Rube Goldberg Machine (something I’m going to be thinking a lot about in the later films, I bet). It depends on exact timing, people doing exactly what Kramer wanted them to do, just so everything could fall into place. With this amount of uncertainty in events Kramer’s plan could have easily backfired, something that I believe the character would not want happening and would make sure everything was set up so that it couldn’t happen any other way.

With Saw II I did have a lot of issues with it, but I still enjoyed it. This one just seemed like a waste of time to me. It was good at ending the first trilogy, but it wasn’t a good film. At all. The biggest problem was its lack of focus and length. If it could concentrate more on key parts of the film it would have been a lot better.

Well, now into Saw IV we go, a film that begins the “I’ve heard people say these ones are the shit ones” saga of the Saw franchise.

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Final Verdict: 4/10