Very solid effort

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2005)

While there are so many terrible horror movies that are spewed out that follow ridiculous formulas and have no relevance to society, this one makes a decent effort to say something meaningful and be original in the process. Granted, it is still an effort at entertainment as much, and probably more so, as it is social commentary; also, it doesn't always come out perfectly (including some unintentionally humorous moments and some small things that didn't quite add right), and it's easy to argue that many of the conceptual traits can be found in other, more respected movies (i.e. Se7en). Overall, though, it came off considerably better than the first one. It almost seems that this movie was the "final draft" of sorts, with the first being the rough draft.
If you enjoyed the original Saw and can handle more gore than the first, this is worth seeing, if for nothing else than a great improvement in virtually all regards.