Good, with some issues.

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 2005)

Saw II works as a very effective sequel to the original movie. Although it is as clever as the first one as far as interesting plot turns go, the characters weren't nearly as well-structured. Certain characters carried out certain actions that just seemed either unreasonable or pointless. Some characters don't seem to have any point to why they're in the story.
That isn't to say its an unsatisfying movie. Although I knew there would be some sort of twist ending, i had never guessed what the outcome eventually was. Even then, it wasn't that shocking.
My point about the structure of the characters is that they completely screwed up on what they had gotten perfect in the first movie: two people who need to learn something about themselves and why they are in the room. This movie just had a bunch of annoying characters in a house frantically working independently among each other. I suppose you could argue that "the rejection of listening to your peers will lead to your eventual doom" is the moral of the story, but for God's sake, did Beverly Mitchell REALLY need to be in this movie!? My last issue is that there wasn't enough creativity put into the self inflicted dooms of "victims". I know that sounds a bit sick, but it was part of the attraction of the first movie for a lot of people. The beginning death was just a rehash of what the character Amanda (Shawnee Smith) had to go through (though the key behind his eye was a nice touch).