Fun and bloody, but nowhere near the quality of the first.

Rating: 6/10 (31 October 2005)

"Could contain Spoilers"
Saw 2 opens with yet another doomed victim who lacks an appreciation for life - not a good character trait to have when the Jigsaw killer is hungry for gaming. In this most anticipated sequel, the first victim wakes in a grungy room wearing only an iron contraption around his neck and a pair of navy blue boxer briefs. Soon enough, a nearby TV turns on to reveal that creepy papier-mâché mask that we all have come to know and love. Through a brief explanation, we learn that some hours earlier, Mr. Joe Boxer had a key implanted behind his eyeball; the evidence of which is shown on the TV in an x-ray. The key unlocks the "Death Mask", a spring loaded spiked device, that he has woken up wearing. Armed only with a scalpel and a mirror, he must cut the key out of his head and unlock the mask before it snaps shut and kills him. To make matters worse, he only has 60 seconds to do it! Talk about a rude awakening! He's just woken up and he has a split second to decide if he would rather lose an eye or die When I first wake up, it takes me 3 minutes just to remember what day it is Rough day for this guy The TV turns off abruptly the game has begun. Does he perform this gruesome surgical procedure? Better yet, does he perform it within the given time? Seeing how this is the opening of the film, you should be guessing no. Bingo SMASH! The mask closes like a Venus flytrap on steroids.
Enter hero Donnie Wahlberg playing the role of Detective Eric Matthew. He walks onto the crime scene and after five minutes basically says, "I'm outta here!" What? Wait a minute are you sure? Maybe you want to find a clue before you leave? Eventually, he decides to look a little closer, which leads to the discovery of a manufacturer's label on the death mask. Calling all cars! Everyone heads down to the manufacturing plant where they discover The Jigsaw Killer. "Gotcha", says Detective Matthew. Yep, he's a smart one all right. Jigsaw tells Matthew to look in the other room. He sees a group of monitors displaying eight victims in an isolated, grunge infested room. To really hit home, Matthew sees that one of the victims is his teenage son. Let the games begin Detective.
Here's how the game is played folks  The eight victims are trapped inside a house. There is a toxic nerve agent in the house that is seeping into their bodies. The door to the house will open in three hours but within two, their bodies will bleed from every internal organ. Throughout the house are games that, if won, will yield an antidote, but usually just a single dose. This leads to one of my first major problems with the film. OK, you have a decent size house to explore and only two hours to do so. The first thing I would do is form some kind of a plan, look around the room very carefully for clues, etc What do these guys choose to do first? Freak out. Fine, we'll give them a few minutes to do that. However, I felt like they never stopped arguing. I understand that these eight personalities vary to the extreme but it was very annoying to see the clock ticking while they do absolutely nothing to benefit themselves. You have one girl on the ground crying half the time and another one telling everyone to shut up. Towards the finale, one of these characters becomes an even bigger threat to the household than Jigsaw very odd story choice in my opinion.
As you might have guessed, I really would have liked to see the characters working together more, or better yet, working together at all. I felt the script should have spent more time playing with what the characters knew and didn't know, as in the first film. You had two characters chained up in a bathroom. One of them would secretly read a note hidden by Jigsaw and instantly we know that Adam knows something Lawrence doesn't. Then five minutes later Lawrence reads a note. Then we watch them play against each other. The original film peeled away layers like the Iron Chef on crystal meth but sadly, the sequel did not. Towards the end, I was so annoyed and frustrated by the characters, I was eagerly awaiting their hopefully painful demise. You have this huge house with all these undiscovered rooms why on Pluto would you waste more then ten minutes showing them arguing. It was like watching Jigsaw's version of Big Brother.
The character of Detective Matthew was almost as annoying as the arguing. At some point in the film, Jigsaw says something to the effect of  all you have to do is listen to me and your son will be returned safely. That's it, nothing more, nothing less. Actually, pretty simple directions The maniac promptly launches into his mantra, talking about the value of life and how people don't appreciate it. Sure enough, in five minutes Matthew is rolling his eyes and calling the guy a crazy loony. Call me loony but if Jigsaw had my son and he said those words, my ear would be down his throat. Apparently, my viewpoints on a child's life are a little different from Detective Matthew's.
Overall, Saw 2 can definitely be fun and entertaining at times but it just wasn't what it needed to be. The movie is decent but when compared to the original, it did not shine as much as it should have. With all this being said, I still recommend Saw 2. I don't feel it's a must see but if you're a fan of the genre it's definitely worth a look.