I should have read more reviews

Rating: 2/10 (23 April 2006)

Saturday night, and I am forced to choose between Saw 2 and Hostel (which I had already seen) for my late night horror entertainment. After reading the glowingly positive reviews of Saw 2 here I thought I would give it a chance. After the incredibly cheesy opening scene (;et s get right to the... well, I won't spoil it for you) with it's 5,001 requisite MTV jump cuts I debated folding my hand and throwing in Hostel.
I should have thrown in Hostel.
The worst part about all this is that I will never recover the running time of this movie. It is gone forever.
If they had eschewed the rapid fire editing and worked on mood, the overall picture could have been much better. As it stands though, it's a weak attempt and not nearly as good as the 3 of 5 star Saw I. The premise has been discussed before, a group of people trapped in a small area forced to find out why and how to escape, which is reminiscent of the highly superior movie Cube. There is no character development, you have no idea who these people are and you don't care. The main protagonists are miserable, as are the secondary authority figures in the helpless hero role. It's basically just an excuse to unravel Rube Goldberg trap after trap, constrained to a 3 seconds per scene limit, so you can't even see what is going on! There is no mood, no overall feeling of dread, the only emotion I actually felt was anger and frustration at watching my Saturday Night drift away. Maybe it is my age, at 35 I remember the new "classics" of the 70s and 80s and really don't relate to this flashy style over substance approach to recent horror films. So take my words with a grain of salt if the new Dawn of the Dead far surpasses the original to you.
As for me, this was bad enough for me to want to write some words of warning to others. If you've seen Cube and then watched in horror Cube 2, you may have some idea of what I felt watching the inferior Saw II completely obliterate any positive feelings I had about the original Saw.
Yup, it was that bad.