Good movie; not great, but good. Third movie may mean room for redemption in the eyes of some---

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2006)

The first movie, although extremely gruesome, was brilliant. It showed us just how much people take life for granted--- all of us do, there isn't a single soul who can fairly and rightly say that they had never at least once in the most tiny way taken advantage of the life they were given.
This movie, although not quite meeting the expectations of many, was good. Great? That's all a matter of opinion of every individual. But it WAS good.
There wasn't a whole lot of character development--- we basically learned that each person did this or that in their past, and how they were connected--- through Daniel's dad. They all had evidence planted against them by his dad. Really, it was only the kid (Daniel) and the girl (Amanda) that I wanted to live. Why? Well, because Daniel is what he is--- a kid. Not a little four year old kid, but still not an adult. Amanda? Because she at the moment seemed to be the only one who actually was willing to do anything to survive Jigsaw's game.
The characters were way bad. This one guy goes around killing people or leaving them to their deaths... doesn't make much sense to do so at the start. Wouldn't it be smarter to keep them around to help you find an antidote, and then kill them so you will ultimately be the survivor? But he goes around and bashes them on the head and what not.
The movie was good, but it has a lot of room for improvement. I have to say that I didn't expect the ending--- I really didn't believe that Amanda would carry on Jigsaw's torture game for those taking advantage of life. I just thought, oh, so she escaped but returned to her taking-advantage-of-life-ways and he brought her back. Then we learn that she in fact, is the new Jigsaw. And it makes sense--- in a weird way. She survived it, so she knew it was possible. She was already once a drug addict and in jail, so nobody ever accused this girl of being some brilliant genius of a human being in the first place. And Jigsaw always had to have a front row seat, remember? Amanda, starting on her very first 'game', had a front row seat. She was one of the supposed victims stuck in the house.
There are a few things we have to consider--- Jigsaw had cancer, so he was dying. Was it likely for him to fix that house up so that it had all sorts of traps like before? Not likely. What is most likely is that Amanda, with some help, did it all. Either that, or it was done before the game. Amanda and Daniel were in the bathroom that we first saw in the original Saw movie--- so its possible the whole place was rigged for different times, different games set up for different people caught by Jigsaw taking advantage of life.
As I said, this movie wasn't great. It had its flaws just like all movies usually do--- but its still worth a watch at least once, when you're considering what movie to rent. Or if you just see it on a movie channel--- its not something you will always want to watch over and over. Its something you should for sure want to see once. The rest is all just... a matter of opinion.
This movie left an opening for a sequel, with the new Jigsaw. This was Amanda's first game... she has room to improve, and by the third movie if they do follow through with it, she should have already gone through with the game a few times before the movie starts. A good movie with flaws, and has room for redemption.