For starters, I'd like to give some background information on the first several Saw movies. What I enjoyed about the original (or, "O.G.") movie is that it was a low-budget film that became an unexpected success. Due to the low budget, the gore aspect was not over-the-top, often off-screen, and the concept was fresh and entertainingly gruesome. However, keeping with the unwritten rule about sequels, Saw II-VI and Saw: The Final Chapter turned a previously intelligent and fresh idea into a no-holds-barred nonsensical blood fest that was just about as entertaining as it was pleasant. So, hopefully, my dubiousness about Jigsaw is understood and perceivably justified.
In all honesty, this movie was not so terrible. For starters, there were actually some characters that I can say I almost grew to care about. Usually Jigsaw's victims are incredibly annoying and it is welcoming when they meet their creatively brutal demise. Now, don't get me wrong, this movie definitely had its share of characters that I had no problem with witnessing their creative dismembering. But, to my surprise, there were a handful of characters that weren't completely terrible. I even grew to enjoy the performance of Callum Keith Rennie. I know, I know--you're going, "Who?" It's OK, I wouldn't have known his name, either. For me, though, it was nice to see Californication's Lou Ashby still getting work. Now I'm just waiting for David Duchovny to get a decent movie gig.
Paying tribute to the O.G. film, the end came with a surprising twist that was actually quite enjoyable. Maybe the production company Twisted Pictures encompasses more than one play-on-words. Either way, a successful twist ending is a rarity and fairly hard to come by, so my combined pleasure and shock was well-earned. I mean, it's certainly no "Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time" or "Leonardo DiCaprio is actually a patient" level of twist, but enjoyable nonetheless.
Redeeming qualities or no, this is still not a quality movie. I wouldn't expect Terantino levels of writing coming from the Saw franchise, so the corny lines weren't unexpected. I will say that I can think of plenty of movies--horror or no--that have far worse dialogue. However, the writing of this movie is mediocre at best. As I said before, I expected much worse, so the writing is not disastrously bad, but definitely not good. As far as the plot goes, it was, "eh.." at best. Nothing was particularly imaginative, and plot holes were definitely rampant. Earlier I mentioned that I liked some characters, but the rest of them were completely forgettable. I don't know--I just don't want to give any overdue credit to something that only earns the reward of not sucking as bad as it was expected to.
Like many of you, I was fully expecting to write another entertainingly scathing review about this movie. However, as fun as that would be, I really didn't dislike this movie as much as I thought I would. So, to end this review that is essentially one long backhanded compliment (one of my specialties), I should note that I'd only recommend seeing this movie if gore is not something that you'd have a problem with. To be fair, it's not at the levels of some of the previous sequels, but for those of you out there who are squeamish or simply aren't used to seeing gory movies, it wouldn't be something of interest. But for the rest of us, I will say that the Jigsaw escape puzzles were somewhat creative and made much more sense than in past movies. Additionally, the gore aspect was undoubtedly a factor, but not senseless.
All in all, I wouldn't find it overly hasty to give this movie a 51%, recommending that those of you who can handle it should stream it on
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