Fails to capture the spirit of the original film

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2006)

Saw II is clever like the first, but definitely not as good.
Whereas the first was original, and genuinely scary at times, this movie just fails to live up to it. It's an alright movie, don't get me wrong. But nowhere near on par with the original (which wasn't all that amazing to begin with).
The acting is alright for what it is. Donnie Wahlberg does Cary Elwes proud with the really bad overacting, and everyone else just makes an attempt with what they have to work with. Adding more characters was not a step in the right direction.
But the entire movie just feels a bit rushed. Yeah, there are many nods to the original film, but the rest of it is just there. Characters are dismissed all too quickly, and the characters that stay are not the least bit interesting. There are a few shock moments, but it loses a lot of the terror the original packed. The terror made it jump so far ahead of modern horror films, especially ones coming from the United States, and it just is not the same here. Those few moments are also marred by some fast editing that really takes away from it all. The ending rocks hard when it comes, but everything leading up to it just feels a little forced, like they had the ending, but just needed to come up with some filler to get to it.
While both movies failed to really captivate, this one just doesn't leave the same feeling with you afterwards that the original did. And that's a shame.
6/10.