Let's play some more

Rating: 6/10 (3 November 2008)

The first Saw was, on its own terms, groundbreaking in its nastiness and brutal originality. The sequel, on the other hand, does what all other horror follow-ups do - mimic the formula of the first one -, albeit with a little more thoughtfulness.
The script, according to various statements by the crew, was originally a stand-alone thriller, written by director Darren Lynn Bousmann, and had to be rearranged to fit in the Saw universe after the original became a huge box office hit. Despite Leigh Whannell's best efforts, this fact shows quite a bit, mostly because of the plot being a lot more complex than in the first movie. This time, instead of two people in a bathroom, we have eight in an entire building, and it's only a matter of hours before they're all killed by lethal nerve gas. While each of them figures out why he or she deserves to be there, Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) and his task force get as far as facing Jigsaw himself (Tobin Bell), a cancer-ridden old man who has no intention of dying before his work is complete. There is also another reason why Matthews can't kill him right away: his only son is the gas-infested building.
Making the story more twisted and ambitious is not a bad thing per se, but considering all the traps seen in the first Saw were conceived for one or two people at most, the mass carnage in Saw II appears a little difficult to justify. That it becomes rather easy to ignore this fact is down to two elements: the consistent tension, paired with some good old gore, and Tobin Bell, who is allowed to expand on his character after the brilliant twist ending of the previous entry showed us how far he could go. Having perfected his villainous acting in episodes of Alias and 24 (and also, surprisingly, Seinfeld), he owns the entire film, spitting out Jigsaw's life (and death) philosophy with understated menace.
And then there's the one thing most fans will judge more harshly than anything else: the final twist, or rather twists (there are at least two). One is a bit of a let-down, in fact it's Saw II's biggest liability (anyone who's seen the first movie can guess it very easily), the other is actually smarter than expected, although the overall feeling is that the ending was constructed to leave the road open for Saw III instead of providing a good shock. Still, after seeing the third installment, it has to be said that at least the makers of the second one tried their best.