Fresh, Unique, and Original...with just a few flaws

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2006)

First, a spoiler warning: ! ! ! S P O I L E R S ! ! ! I've seen this movie three times now, and I can safely say that what we have here is a fresh, unique spin on the serial killer genre, and although it's marginally flawed, the good outweighs the bad, and it ultimately leaves me applauding every time.
I could spend days writing about the better parts of this movie and not even come close to finishing - so, instead I'll focus on the minimal problems I had with it. There are only three of them, so it's easy to explain.
First off, I just don't like Cary Elwes, at least not in this movie. His character is one thing, but his delivery leaves me feeling that Dr. Gordon is an unlikeable jerk. Maybe that's exactly what we're supposed to feel, but maybe it also says something about Mr. Elwes' personality - either way, I am definitely bored (even annoyed) with his melodramatic reactions in the second half of the flick. Oh, and he has infinitely better chemistry with Jigsaw's secret notes than he does with his family - the whole bit with playing "This Little Piggy" with his daughter was laughable. But enough about Mr. Elwes, and onto the more concrete problems that could - and should - have been so much better.
My next problem is actually in two separate scenes, both of which involve completely different characters...and yet both result same in the same annoying turnout for the same annoying reason. When the two detectives (played by Tony Leung and Danny Glover) break into Jigsaw's hideout, they get him at gunpoint...but they don't shoot. Not even when they're demanding to know how to turn off one of his machines that is about to add to his victim count. Ultimately, Danny Glover's character gets a slashed throat (but he survives), and Tony Leung's character gets killed. Then, fast forward towards the end of the movie. Monica Potter's character manages to squirm out of her ropes, then pretends she's still tied up. She manages to surprise and overpower her captor (the "fake" Jigsaw), trains her gun on him...and she doesn't shoot him. Instead, she talks...and naturally, gives him the complete advantage of knocking her feet out from under her and almost killing her. Granted, in both cases, the main characters survive their respective "surprise" assaults, but why, oh why was there even a "surprise"? They both should have just fired at the antagonists when they had the chance, even as accidentally bad shots through the leg or shoulder, or something. It really annoys me that almost no movie is safe from this clichÃ©, not even something as innovative and original as SAW.
Finally, I have a major problem with a fight sequence between Danny Glover's detective and "the Fake Jigsaw Twerp." Wait, a fight sequence? How could there have even been a fight? It's almost as embarrassing as Mel Gibson fighting Ned Ryerson in BIRD ON A WIRE: there should have been a couple of swings, then game over. But no...apparently, someone felt bad for the (very) little man in both instances, and gave them a chance to kick the arse of a well-known action star. Here is a man in his early-to-mid 60's, and without even knowing what kinds of big, strong, and tough personalities Mr. Glover usually brings to his roles, we know that this detective would not be an easy fight. So what happens? He gets his arse handed to him by a little twerp, the very same pseudo-"Jigsaw" who got lucky because Monica Potter's character was an idiot, resulting in his death...I'm sorry, but if that was supposed to happen, they should have gotten a smaller, older, and/or weaker actor to take the role - especially considering that an amazing actor like Mr. Glover shouldn't have been taking on such a small role to begin with - or at the very least, made the fight more believably rough on his part.
For such a cutting-edge movie (pardon the pun), these things added up to major annoyances that took me out of the movie, and really took away from a full star rating. Again: the good outweighed the bad, and I still value this movie as something so fresh, unique, and original...which is more than I can say about most horror movies nowadays.