Saw 3D






My grade: B+

For the first hour, it's pretty standard Saw. Not as dull as Saw V, but going through the motions following Bobby Dagen. But in the final half hour, the film goes nuts with references and fanwank of the highest order. Once Hoffman and Jill take center stage, the film kicks up several notches, and ends on a note that had me grinning. I didn't think they could match the 'cool' factor of last year's ending, but they did. Oh boy.

And fuck Indiana Jones. I wanna be Mark Hoffman when I grow up.

With Saw 3D, the flagship "torture porn" franchise comes to an end with its most over-the-top and violent episode to date. I can't help but consider Saw two franchises: there's the first three films--stylish, tight Se7en clones driven by Tobin Bell's memorable performances as ailing madman John "Jigsaw" Kramer--and then there's what comes after, including Costas Mandylor's still-dull Hoffman, corrupt detective/Jigsaw disciple. Saw 3D concludes Hoffman's arc, including his confrontation with Jill (Betsy Russell), Jigsaw's widow, without much excitement. Director Kevin Greutert seems to sense almost no one but the franchise's most ardent will care, so he compensates by including even more torture and viscera than usual. The most memorable "trap" unfolds at the beginning: three buzz saws, two romantic rivals across from each other, and the scheming woman they both love above, as hundreds of passersby watch. (The film doesn't bother showing how Hoffman set up a trap in a public square rather than the Saw-standard abandoned warehouses. It doesn't matter; it's a cool scene.)

What's missing is anyone worth rooting for. The new characters, including a new cop protagonist, are afterthoughts. And for the first time, Bell's Jigsaw is almost 100 percent absent from the proceedings; sure, he's been dead for four films now, but his presence--almost sympathetic, yet also terrifying and mysterious--is missed.

Overall, this is a pro forma conclusion; it answers a few questions for people who are invested in the franchise's complicated storyline, it has enough over-the-top gore to satisfy crowds in search of a bump in the multiplex for Halloween, there's a few zany twists, etc. It doesn't top the best Saw film (the truly satisfying and well-crafted III), but it does what it needs to.

C+

Yeah... no.

Not a fan. Saw 6 would have made a much better and more fitting ending.


The opening public trap was an absolute flop, like Divorcetina Aguilera's life or Jennifer Lopez's movie career. There was no excitement. They were in the trap because this bitch is a, well, a bitch, and been toying two guys around and getting them to do things for her? Ok. I'm not sure that's death-deserving for any of them, even her. Slap her in the face real hard, maybe break her nose. But I dunno if she needs to hang upside down with a saw nearing her unless her two lovahs push the saw to one of the others. The people in the past Saws all seemed to really deserve it, but as it switched from Tobin Bell's chracter to the DILFy but lifeless Costas or whatthefuckever, he seemed to just be killin' peeps in inescapable traps. Is he just some murderer who durnt curr about making people see the error of their lives, and just wants to kill bitches? cuz that's not exactly an interesting series progression.

The film had no one to root for. Not a soul.

Maybe Jill. But she went from kind-of badass in the previous films to a weaksauce skurred little girl in this. And wtf was that cop? His crazy line where he said crazy like five times all crazy was absolutely crazy. This film had the worst acting of all seven, and this is the freaking Saw series. You've gotten to porn level bad acting in the worst-acted Saw film. But then it's Saw, so whocurr about the acting? You come for the torture porn. Which this had little excitement in. It's hard to curr about the traps when I don't curr about the people in them, and this film didn't try for a moment to make you feel for any of them, which the others did. There was no epic trap. Like Saw 6's Carousel with the gun that goes off unless the dewd does something. That's the last great Saw trap, imo.

I did kind of like the racist skinheads in the garage car trap thingy, but it was still meh ultimately. And wtf kind of trap was that one the black chick survived? Hanging over some blenders across from her abusive boyfriend and they had to slap each other till one fell down? Right..

A horror movie is empty and pointless if they don't try to make you feel for their victims, even if the point is just to rip them in pieces, twist their arms off or burn them alive.

And the ending was rere, tbh. I saw the twist coming since Saw IV. Didn't everyone? I'm pretty sure craycray Saw stans have written the end to the series in fanfiction word for word. You know, what I think may have been a cooler ending, would have been to save the public trap for the end of the film, and had you-know-who put Jill and Hoffman inside it and had them sawin' each other to bits in front of a crowd. One dies, while the one that lives goes to jail anyway, as both have been revealed to the world as accomplices to Jigsaw. I dunno, better than what we got. Because in theory, the public trap is really cool. But it was a total bore in this film. And pointless, as it had nothing to do with the rest of the film like the other openings in the Saw series have.

And the 3D was horrible, btw. Clash of the Titans had better 3D. They just did it in this film so they could tack on 3D prices. Without the 3D gimmick and "the last Saw EVAR!" this would have flopped harder than Saw 6 did last year. no1curr about this series anymore. They have to do gimmicks to get bitches in.

Saw 6 would have made for a better final film, really. But I very srsly doubt Saw 7 is the final Saw. They may take off 2011, but they'll come back in 2012. Waiting two years then coming hard with an ad like, "We're back, bitches. Get Saw'd! In 3D." will be a good gimmick for Saw 8. Probably.


out of

A-

I loved it, seriously, if you love the franchise, there's no way in hell that ending makes you smile, and no, it's not re-re, it's a pretty finale to the series, everyone knew it was coming? hell yes, but it was still a pretty nice touch, end everything where it all began.

"Game Over".

It's an ending I've seen tossed about by fans since Saw IV. But you know what? Don't care, it made me grin.

There's no way this is the final Saw, though. There's no reason in the world to have three pigs at the end other than to pay the other two off down the road.

There are Saw fans who seriously suspect the other two "pigs" are Gordon's wife and daughter. Ridiculous.

But I agree with The Dark Shape. They're obvious placeholders for characters to be written in the future.

Was Betsy Russell as hot as she used to be?

There's a moment where she's talking to Gibson in a jail cell where I paused to think, "Jesus, she's gorgeous."

SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER

Sickeningly disgusting. Thank God this series has come to an end, at least for a while. It has truly overstayed its welcome. I can't believe these movies have managed to secure 'R' ratings, especially the latter ones. They just got more and more grotesque, each one trying to top the previous. Movies have been slapped with NC-17 ratings for much less. I know it's a "SAW' movie, but for some reason the extremely over-the-top violence annoyed me this time around. There was really no pleasure that could be taken from watching this. It's just the same old boring routine with the violence taken up a notch. Please just let this damn series lie already. I'm SAWed out.

Grade: 5/10 ( C )

B-/C+


Once again, it is a step-down from the surprisingly good Saw VI, but it ties up loose ends and generally gives a decent ending (though it won't take longer than another 4-5 years until we see Saw: Rebirth or something like that). I am glad Kevin Greutert has returned for this and not David Hackl, though looking at Greutert's Paranormal Activity 2/Saw 3D debacle you can see that the director was much less inspired here and simply doing a paycheck job.

The 3D delivers just what you'd expect from 3D in Saw. It is in your face and disgusting, but that's the way it should be. I thought Sean Patrick Flanery made for a rather good protagonist (though killing his wife really really seemed unnecessary), but I could, once again, care less for Hoffman and his beef with Jill. One thing I did like, though, was to finally see the reverse beartrap to its final effect. I mean it is the most classic Saw trap and we have never seen it kill someone. Amanda got out of it. Hoffman did too (albeit a little too late), but it is ironic that it is Jill who ended up fully suffering.

And then the ending...Gordon as one of Jigsaw's apprentices? Well, what can I possibly say about that? Absolutely ridiculous. I could buy into Amanda playing along with Jigsaw and Hoffman too, but Gordon? After everything that happened in the first film. I know it has always been the hardcore fans' wet dream, but c'mon!

I watched this about a month ago and I loved it. I thought it was one of the better SAW movies (it's either the second best after three or third best after the second, IMO). Very fun, very gory and twisty. A great final film.

8/10

Yeah, that was really hard to swallow.

*insert crass cum joke here*

Y'know, because it's Mike...

You couldn't resist, could you? I was sort of expecting you to say something.

Gordon appreciated his family after Saw. Hence he was thankful for Jigsaw. It's silly, but it's a better reason than Hoffman had. Why was he continuing the games after Jigsaw died again? He was blackmailed into doing it in the first place.

I'm the opposite of Lecter. I couldn't care less for Bobby's game for most of the running time. He's easily the least interesting of the "room-to-room saving someone" games. Hoffman's my rooting interest in the series at this point. I love the evil bastard.

Yeah I don't think his family was around anymore, and if he really was behind John, and that the methods could help, I doubt he would have let Hoffman make traps without escape for as long as he did. But then again the timeline is so fucking stupid it seems like 3-7 happened over the course of a day. The twist is the epitome of stupid, not to mention the most obvious thing ever. For a series that use to take pride in being unexpected. Worst cop out ever.

Finally got to see what happened to the story I always wanted. A whole 3 minutes in a 2 Hour 10 minute film. Its too bad they couldn't get a Danny Glover cameo in there as well, as I never thought Zap killed him. But I guess thats what happens when you cast good actors in your first film, they'll never come back for a horror sequel. Though it was still nice to see Cary Elwes back, and his "I don't think so" line did make me chuckle

Sean Patrick Flannery's story is probably the most interesting one in in the series in a while, but my god it is executed poorly, and with the worst traps of the series. Honestly all 3 of them involved spikes; One involved don't make a girl scream (Why not just knock her out, then pull the key out) and finally ending with burning the only innocent person in the movie. I was actually expecting it to be a Gordon trap, like she goes into safety thenhave Dr. Gordon say medically you should have known you can't hold your weight up with hooks.

Very stupid execution. This should have been the story for the 2nd or third film in all honesty because the one scene with Tobin Bell and his rage makes it rather funny that he waited until long after he was dead to go after him.

The outside one shouldn't have been public as its the most unrealistic thing ever. It seemed like it was outside Rockefeller Center. You'd think cops would notice a huge U-haul and a Crane unloading a 100 square foot cage with three chained people in the middle or rush hour. And I was laughing like crazy when the cops finally arrived and all they did was hold back the crowd with time still left.

It fits in nicely with mediocre-ness that started with 3

Every Saw sequel is essentially two stories grafted onto each other. It just comes down to how well they balance. Saw III and Saw VI do this well, and they're the best films in the series. Saw V and Saw 3D botch it, and thus we get the films we do (the fact they were both spear-headed by David Hackl probably isn't a coincidence).

I like the idea of a fake Jigsaw survivor being tested, but I was bored every single time they cut to that storyline. It's never interesting in the context of the film.

It should have been the plot for the third film, and they should have never killed off Jigsaw. The two stories in 3 and 4 do flow together nicely, but the stories themselves are weak compared to the first two films, and with much worst acting.

Bullshit. The acting in the original Saw is still the worst of the series, and the big stars are more guilty of being terrible than anyone else.



i.e., "I don't want the plot to develop or for shocking things to actually happen; just give me sequel after sequel, please."

Saw III is the best film in the series because it's the one that actually takes real chances. It kills both lead characters in what was very much being set up as a long-term franchise. It takes its villain's philosophy and, instead of championing it, calls it bullshit. Jigsaw dies knowing he's a failure. Compare that to Saw 3D (especially the scripted ending), where Jigsaw's a saint helping people everywhere.

And Saw III and IV don't link up at all when given real thought. It's like pretty much the entirety of the original Saw; cool on first viewing, makes absolutely no sense afterward.

Totally agreed. I found the first movie hilarious due in large part to the awful acting by the leads. Nobody else in this series reached that level of awfulness.

Carey Elwes with only one day of rehearsals is still better than almost any acting in the entire series outside of Bell, Smith and Walhburg. But I don't want to make it seem like I was praising the acting. It's been bad throughout the entire series, there's just different levels. The first film was an experiment that worked really well, so it gets more than a free pass in the acting department from me.

This is so wrong that I wonder if you're just joking with us. Freaking Franky G in Saw II is better than Elwes was.

The first hour isn't that good, but the last 30 minutes are probably the best of the series. Not as good as the 6th but great non the less.

and the ending needed to be this way. period.

B+