Jigsaw returns...with more idiocy

Rating: 1/10 (29 April 2006)

"Saw 2", like the original, is arguably one of the most overrated films ever. Although this film is slightly better than the original Saw, it still has the same boring ideas and tries badly to be a horror movie.
This time, instead of just two guys trapped in a room by Jigsaw (from the first movie), there are now about 7 people locked up in a house with deadly gas. These people must figure out the clues given by Jigsaw in order to escape the house. Meanwhile, police have located Jigsaw himself and start questioning him about how to release the trapped victims...
The previews were right when they said that there would be more blood than the original film. Nevertheless, along with more blood, there is more stupidity brought by the characters that are locked inside the house. Each and every one of them are among the dumbest characters I've ever seen in film history. The clues they were given were so obvious that they all should have figured everything out. But alas, they all take wrong turns and end up killing each other.
Aside from the stupidity happening in the the deadly house, the police arrive at Jigsaw's hideout to persuade him to set his victims free. Jigsaw himself is a laughable rip-off of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The questioning scenes between Jigsaw & the main cop are carbon copies of the questioning scenes between Dr. Hannibal Lecter & FBI agent Clarice Starling in "The Silence of the Lambs". The film-makers attempted to make Jigsaw look "clever" by letting him use metaphorical sentences, much like Hannibal. However, Jigsaw is in no way as psychologically menacing as Hannibal, since Hannibal uses his mind to frighten his victims, while Jigsaw relies solely on traps to keep his victims scared. In my eyes, Jigsaw is a lame Hannibal wannabe.
Jigsaw is much more weaker than I expected him to be. In this film, he is a very old man in a wheelchair, supported by oxygen breathers. As the movie progresses, the audience learns that he ended up this way due to being in a freak car accident. He reveals that he has an assistant who helped him build the traps. This assistant is actually among the victims from the booby-trapped house! However, it is hard to believe that Jigsaw's assistant is a teenage girl. I would never believe that she could have helped Jigsaw build the traps. She seems too much of an amateur to be an assistant of a so-called "criminal mastermind". Both Jigsaw and his assistant are totally unrealistic and pathetic.
Finally, the traps in this movie are better than the first film. Some of them were impressive, but still not good enough to make this film a horror movie. I guess people consider this film a horror movie because of the dangerous traps. But traps are not scary at all.
To conclude, this movie is almost the same as the original Saw movie, except that it has more blood than the first one. There are also stupid characters who do dumb things. It's still a thriller, with more horror elements than the first movie. If you liked the first film, then you will enjoy this sequel. If you are a horror movie fan, however, avoid this movie.
I give this film a 1/10.