More of 'Saw', only not as good.

Rating: 5/10 (20 November 2005)

Despite it's massive over acclaim, extremely poor acting and MTV-style direction, the original 'Saw' was quite a good film. It's good points included a tight and thrilling storyline, some great ideas and a twist that worked through its amazingly simple surprise element. The sequel, on the other hand, feels like writer Leigh Whannell simply jotted a few ideas down on a scrap of toilet paper after hearing of the success of his first movie. The traps here aren't nearly as imaginative, the twist is simply thrown in at the end, the characters are clichéd in the extreme; and the 'drama' surrounding the central character and his son is boring, underdone and impossible to care for. Leigh Whannell, basically, does a terrible job of making the audience care about what happens; but luckily for Saw 2; the style is there, and this is the film's saving grace. The under wrought plot follows a trap-laden house full of people. They're inhaling a deadly toxin, and the antidote is hidden somewhere in the house. If you weren't already excited enough about that, you'll also be glad to know that there's the 'estranged son' subplot, which is ham-fistedly worked into the film.
Even though Saw 2's bad points outnumber it's good ones, I still hesitate to call this a truly bad film. For what it is, Saw 2 is an enjoyable movie. It's not on for long, so the stretched plot line doesn't quite run out of steam before the final credits; and there are enough characters in the film to ensure that there's always another death scene on the horizon. The characters, however, are the film's main downfall. While we cared about the two characters in the first film because we were plugged into their plight; here, we're bombarded with far too many all at once, and this makes it very difficult to care what happens to any of them. The fact that they're all clichéd doesn't exactly help either. Tobin Bell stands out amongst a cast of nobodies; but really, he's just on autopilot. The simplistic plot does a pretty good job of hiding the fact that this is a very shallow movie; as does the dark styling throughout. Director Darren Lynn Bousman does a decent enough job of enforcing the macabre element of the film in every scene, and Saw 2 does have a very repulsive edge to it. On the whole, if you liked the original Saw; you'll probably like this one too. It's not a great movie, and most will probably come out of it feeling a little cheated; but I would say that it's almost worth seeing.