Jigsaw not happy.

Rating: 2/10 (3 December 2005)

A fiendishly clever idea--for a 22 minute episode of, say, The Twilight Zone. But for a feature? Nope. Not without engaging characters, decent dialogue, a plausible story and a convincingly motivated villain. Saw plays out more as an assortment of potentially cool demo scenes strung into a threadbare and implausible story. Even the money scene--the reverse bear-trap--is marred by overly frantic camera movement and editing. The director has watched too many music videos and not enough Hitchcock. Basic storytelling and film-making skills are absent as is any command of actors, dialogue, mood and logic.
Unfortunately, none of that seems to matter any more as this film has already spawned a sequel and looks well on its way to becoming a franchise. The director/writing team are rich, successful and no-doubt convinced that they are the future of edgy film-making. Too bad, cuz now they'll never have the need to master the craftmanship necessary to add style and substance to their high-concept ideas. What a waste. Jigsaw not happy.