Throwing up blood doesn't look like much fun... but it's certainly entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2009)

Since this sequel came out a mere year after the original Saw, it's easy to imagine that this film was a quickly developed and largely rushed attempt to cash in on the numbers and continue the franchise while the blood was still warm. However, considering that Saw II is almost as good as the original, it's a safer bet that this script was already underway, and the success of the original Saw only made the green light that much brighter.
While the original was a modest little thriller that took place mostly in a single room, Saw II is a film that sets up the launch of an entire franchise, and the numerous story arcs that are developed here are fodder enough to launch a full 10 Saw films. It seems that Jigsaw is going to be busy for a while, and the knowledge that Saw VI is close at hand confirms that the film-makers here knew they had a good concept and had the common sense enough to run with it.
The set-up is considerably more complex than that in the first Saw. Here, we're not dealing with two victims, but a whole slew of potential trap-finders. At first, it seems that these characters are just on tap to ensure an inflated body count, but as the story unfolds, we learn there is strength in numbers, as the widened palate of personality types lends itself to a fascinating study of human reactions to perilous situations. Of course, things play as a bit textbook, and we end up with at least a few of the most common horror film archetypes (the aggressive alpha-male, the panicker, etc.). But the film is interesting and intricate enough to make the ride itself worth any bit of familiarity discomfort.
I'm not sure if there was any societal commentary on the minds of the film-makers, but there certainly seems to be a callous study of human nature on display here. The results are more than a bit misanthropic, but sadly, the events that unfold because of this ordinary set of humans thrust into extraordinary conditions ring very true, and unlike the ancient horror phenomenon of a potential victim hiding in a closet instead of exiting to safety, every action taken by the characters here makes sense in its own twisted way. Humans are all animals at their core, no matter how civilized we deem ourselves, so watching the cast here squirm in Jigsaw's elegantly designed trap, and kill each other if necessary to escape it, lends a keenly voyeuristic eye to a set of circumstances that any of us might lack the elegance to face with any more dignity and humanity than we see here.
I'm not trying to over-analyze a film that is clearly meant to be a gory and fun bit of escapist fare, especially since it is definitely that, if nothing else. But realism is something that lends definite credence to any horror film, and the dark and foreboding sense of man's inhumanity to man on display here plays very well against the grainy, almost documentary-style feel Saw II unfolds in.
Of course, Jigsaw is the central force in this franchise, and Saw II is notable for first beginning to lend the character something resembling understanding. Of course, something is lost there, since the more we comprehend our villain, the more the villain loses its potency. No, there's nothing added here that somehow makes the happenings of Jigsaw's intricate death-traps more frightening, but having a better sense of the character certainly bodes well for future installments, especially if you know there are already 3 more films to catch up on, as I did when I first saw this.
Sequels, by their definition, imply a recycling of ideas, and this one definitely doesn't pack the same punch as the original. We've seen the Da Vincian death machines at work already, so the few glimpses of Jigsaw's handiwork we get here don't quite hit the gut the same way as before (although, dude must have a Masters degree in engineering, so it's certainly admirable when you ponder the logistics of his creations). But, by moving the sole focus from Jigsaw's game to the dice rolls of each of the players, we find ourselves simply enjoying the happenings and not pondering how many man-hours it took to rig an abandoned house with the abundance of homicidal hardware found in Saw II.
You know there's a twist ending in store here, and upon initial viewing, the implications are dicey at best. But, I'm reserving my judgment on this until I see the rest of the films in the franchise. Something very interesting could certainly be done with the curve ball the closer serves up here, and until I see where they go with this, I can't determine whether or not the stunning finale is manipulative or brilliant.
In any case, simply seeing how well this film unfolds, and how it doesn't lessen the sting of the stomach punch delivered by the original Saw, is enough to deem that "franchise" isn't always a bad word, and some ideas are strong enough to explore in multiple films. They didn't just squeeze more blood into this one and hope you didn't notice that they bilked your bucks and made you sit through an exercise in film studio scammery... although the body count and fluid ounces of stage blood here are certainly at least twice what we saw in the first film. (Mind you, I'm not complaining).
Two down, and three to go (until October 2009, when Saw VI is unleashed). But, I must say that when sequels deliver the goods as strongly as this one does, this job doesn't really suck that bad.