You see what I have to put up with? Do you understand exactly how much I do for you? I just went through the least entertaining 90 minutes of the past month, and that includes the 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker. If you haven't heard of it, that's probably for good reason. But lets get back to Saw 3D, the finale of the overly extended Saw franchise. I have a soft spot for the final episode of a series, because when it's done right, it offers the sort of closure we always yearn for. It's something that Lost achieved earlier this year, and that the Harry Potter series is edging towards as we speak. The film I saw this evening offered none.The film follows two parallel storylines, one following Jigsaw apprentice Hoffman trying to kill John Kramer's wife Jill Tuck. The other follows a man who pretends to have escaped a Jigsaw trap in order to earn free publicity, who is then set up in a real Jigsaw trap which he of course fails. That's really all there is to the plot, and it's rather pathetic. Sorry if I hoped for better from a franchise which reached an early peak, and has since existed for nothing but gore. This was once a tale of morality, and an effective one at that. I won't lie that I rather enjoyed the first two films, and to a certain extent the third. I kind of liked the sixth, but this one just falls flat on its face.
Even I realized that this film only existed for the traps to be seen in 3D, but they didn't even succeed in that department. None of the traps were especially inspired, offer fake blood more than anything, and the execution was far worse. Where there might have been slight bits of intensity in previous installments, there is none left. As for what we knew going in, the acting is unbelievable in the negative fashion, the script is practically nonexistent, and the cinematography is just pathetic. They filmed this production the way they would a television sitcom or a daytime soap opera, and it showed in each and every frame.
There were perhaps three things that I liked about this installment. The first involves a trap that we've seen used before, only to be disarmed before being triggered: the bear trap. We finally see it in action, and it was the only trap that lived up the Saw pension for disturbing gore. Then there's Cary Ewles, who returns to the role he last played in the original Saw. The man has a grand total of three scenes, all of which are too short. I'm not afraid of spoiling the fact that he's Jigsaw's third(?) apprentice, and the franchise properly ends where it began. Lawrence Gordon permanently traps Hoffman in the bathroom from the first film, just after taking a look at his rotten and deformed former foot whose role we remember all too clearly. Those were a few nice touches, which nonetheless do not justify the misery we had to sit through to get to that point. Saw 3D was one of the worst films of the year, and without a doubt the worst in the lackluster Saw franchise. I don't even think it's fair to call it a film. It simply, and illogically, is.
D-
Even I realized that this film only existed for the traps to be seen in 3D, but they didn't even succeed in that department. None of the traps were especially inspired, offer fake blood more than anything, and the execution was far worse. Where there might have been slight bits of intensity in previous installments, there is none left. As for what we knew going in, the acting is unbelievable in the negative fashion, the script is practically nonexistent, and the cinematography is just pathetic. They filmed this production the way they would a television sitcom or a daytime soap opera, and it showed in each and every frame.
There were perhaps three things that I liked about this installment. The first involves a trap that we've seen used before, only to be disarmed before being triggered: the bear trap. We finally see it in action, and it was the only trap that lived up the Saw pension for disturbing gore. Then there's Cary Ewles, who returns to the role he last played in the original Saw. The man has a grand total of three scenes, all of which are too short. I'm not afraid of spoiling the fact that he's Jigsaw's third(?) apprentice, and the franchise properly ends where it began. Lawrence Gordon permanently traps Hoffman in the bathroom from the first film, just after taking a look at his rotten and deformed former foot whose role we remember all too clearly. Those were a few nice touches, which nonetheless do not justify the misery we had to sit through to get to that point. Saw 3D was one of the worst films of the year, and without a doubt the worst in the lackluster Saw franchise. I don't even think it's fair to call it a film. It simply, and illogically, is.
D-
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