Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Saw 3D: The Final Chapter - (Not So) Splurge of the Week

2010 - 90 mins. - Rated R
D: Kevin Greutert
C: Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Sean Patrick Flanery, Cary Elwes, Tobin Bell, Dean Armstrong, Chad Donella, Gina Holden, Chester Bennington, Rebecca Marshall, Gabby West, Tanedra Howard

Novelist (Flanery) who supposedly survived one of Jigsaw's (Bell) traps and is now staking a career on that, is exposed for the liar that he is when he is forced to go through a series of traps designed to mimic his fraudulent story. In the meantime, detective Hoffman (Mandylor) tries to locate and kill Jigsaw's ex wife (Russell).

Disappointing conclusion to an overall solid horror film franchise missteps by introducing a completely new plot line from left field that introduces a new main character. This is supposed to be the series finale. This being the last entry, there needs to be plenty of screen time with the characters that helped to build this series. There the reason why viewers found themselves engaged with each new film. Here in Saw 3D, each of the series main players is given only a limited amount of screen time. Poor Betsy Russell, who was so dynamic in the past entries, is pretty much left to just run around and whimper for her life. Tobin Bell, who is the heart of this series, has about five minutes of screen time?!? Costas Mandylor isn't given anything new or substantial to do. And faring the worst of them all, Shawnee Smith isn't even brought back to say goodbye! It isn't all bad. Saw 3D has some more effective trap sequences that viewers fell in love to begin with. Saw 3D does have some suspenseful moments. Cary Elwes, star of the original Saw, makes a welcomed return to the series and gets to chew some scenery while he's at it. And then there's the plot twists....... a Saw movie wouldn't be a Saw movie without them. That's what this entry fully delivers on. The plot twists are shocking and even surprising. So while this entry does get a few things right and overall it's entertaining, Saw 3D makes one blunder too many. Saw 3D ends things on a whimper when it should have soared.

2 comments:

Grizzly Girl said...

I half-agree with you. I felt like it should have been longer to explain some of the other characters, as well. I mean, come on, Jigsaw really is in it for only a couple of minutes... without him, there would be no movie!

They did throw in some random plot lines that had no connection to the other movies, as well, and I thought that was kind of irritating. For the most part, they concluded them all, but still, as a huge fan, I would have preferred them to stick to the main plot to really get deep into the story.

However, I love the ending! I kept saying that I knew Cary's story was going to play out like it did! (I don't want to give anything away for the fans who haven't seen it...) I felt very satisfied with how they wrapped things up, and couldn't stop talking about it for days!

I really do hope they stick to their guns and NOT continue this, though. I thought the ending was very fitting, and would be extremely happy if they left it as is.

Grizzly Girl said...

Oh, and I didn't think the 3D really did anything for it. I was hoping it would be really cool, but it didn't stand out that much for me. I would have been perfectly content with NOT paying that extra $5 for the glasses and seeing it in regular 2D.