Saw 3D Review

• 3rd Nov 2010

News of this being the proposed final instalment in a very diminished franchise may get a few more people in seats to see the series off. But are people going to the cinema as it is the last film, or is it because it has promised to come full circle and includes a few returning faces from the franchise, most notable of which is Cary Elwes?

Well, it is probably a little bit of both to be honest. This being the last film by the same old gang is not enough for anyone to care. Throw in Cary Elwes and suddenly you get instant credibility – but also perhaps the hope of there actually being something new added to the mix which the series has desperately lacked since Saw II. Saw II kicked off the fast editing, swirling camera, green filter look the franchise took on and it only used these effects primarily to cover up the budgetary constraints of the films. If you look closely you can see how pro they actually would look without the speeded up editing and camera filters.

The problem then, is that Saw 3D does not fulfil anything new. It is a rehash of the past mixed in with some closure. The series keeps despatching characters and then having to bring background characters to the fore (that we don’t know or care about) and expect us to believe that this is great continuity.
Originally there was going to be a part 7 and 8, but the writers have condensed this down into one film. We suspect the original idea for part 7 would have been the thread concerning Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flannery) as a self-help guru and supposed survivor of a previous Jigsaw encounter. I’ll state for the record now that this is the most familiar of the threads here. Much like Saw 3 and 6 in particular, you have a flawed character having to encounter people stuck in traps and then have to perform a painful task in order to save them. It offers nothing new except just trap upon trap upon trap which does grow quite tedious. Even then, we are left at the end of his game with an outcome yet no aftermath.

The other thread is a vengeful Matt Hoffman’s pursuit of Jigsaw’s widow Jill Tuck. This thread could have been fleshed out into a much more interesting narrative if Jill Tuck hadn’t become such a scaredy cat (which is a shame, as she is one of the more interesting recurring characters in the series). She basically runs straight to the cops for cover who then don’t manage to do too well a job of protecting her as the new Jigsaw manages to work an elaborate scheme of getting to her.

To be fair, Costas Mandylor gets to do a little bit more emoting in this film than he has managed in previous instalments but we all know that it is Tobin Bell who really worked the magic in the role. He pops up literally in a cameo function to help tie the strenuous points together.

Speaking of cameos, there is a rather pointless one by Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington in an early trap scene and then of course the aforementioned Cary Elwes as Dr Lawrence Gordon. Again, it is more of extended cameo as he is only in a few scenes and it is a stretch to imagine how his character plays out. Perhaps if they gave him more dramatic backing we could understand better but then that would have destroyed the mystery of the franchise.

Letting logic go for a second, the film (and franchise) does tie up in a way that is fairly satisfactory, if in a very rushed fashion, but they do like to montage their footage into that now famous music cue.

Charlie Clouser has created a piece of music that he has managed to stretch over 7 films now and probably make a fortune from doing so. It is a great set of cues, but at the same time like with the sequels it has never presented us with anything new – only set things in their ways – and that is the problem with the franchise is that it never reinvented, never did anything new. If they were to come back with an 8th film – they could really wipe the slate clean and create a new Jigsaw who is perhaps a lot more sympathetic and worthy of following and dramatic perspective (how about a Jigsaw who actually wants people to really pass their tests and wants to heal people with problems?) OK, maybe that idea won’t fly with studios to have less highly elaborate traps.

So, Saw 3D has come and will duly go. As it is merited, right now it probably stands somewhere rather uncomfortably in the middle of series. This doesn’t say much as there is a still a huge gap between the original and the then second favoured instalment of the series.

Steven Hurst