Jigsaw's Back!

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2006)

We could have seen this one coming for miles before the brown stuff hit the fan. Once the success of SAW was declared, a sequel was already in the makes before the first one had even time to exit theaters, make it into our living rooms, and sort-of scare us with these elaborate machinations Jigsaw has a knack of coming up with.
However, this is not a re-hash of the original. Well, it is, but in a totally different way. Where in the first one, two men chained to a wall, there was this sketchy feel of a plot that could not outlast its 100 minutes of duration, and skipped into some completely implausible grounds, the second one has a tighter plotting, meaner settings, and is actually better than the first because of that.
So we get Jigsaw, also known as John Parker (Tobin Bell), up close, looking quite frail but no less sinister or deadly -- a geriatric Hannibal Lecter. He has his reasons for why he does these things. He also has his eye on a certain detective (Donnie Wahlberg) who has done a couple of Really Bad Things in the past, but now is caught in a tight jam when lo and behold, his son becomes one of several of Jigsaw's newest victims, and may not have much longer to live because seeping in through the vents is the gas sarin, known for its rather impolite use in Japan's subways some years back by members of Aum Shinrikyo.
SAW moves fast and is fast. At less time, it has to in order to set the stage, introduce us to the characters -- many of those who we never get to know past the surface, and one who returns from the first -- and stages this supremely perverse, live video game in which any false move could literally blow an eye (and your brains) out. The camera is as agitated and deft in shifting from the room where Jigsaw is being kept to the computers monitoring these captives in another place, and I loved the opening sequence where one man gets into such a predicament that any form of escape is virtually impossible, particularly because a key piece (pun intended) is lodged behind his eye.
Sadistic and loving every moment of it, SAW doesn't ever go into overdrive or collapse near its end, although with a cast as large as it has, it's only fitting that there be numerous deaths, none of them peaceful and filled with sights of angels and lollipops. SAW 3? Definitely, and due out later this year for your (twisted) view.