Man, this one surprised me!

Rating: 8/10 (31 October 2005)

I have to start this by saying that I am not a fan of the first "Saw", but the second one looked interesting, and I liked the set up, so I gave it a shot. Man, I'm glad I did. For starters, the one thing that I hated in the first film, the acting, is a lot better here. Donnie Walhberg has his moments of hamming it up, but for the most part he keeps it restrained. Dina Myer is given a much bigger role this time around, and impressed the heck out of me. The stand out though was Shawnee Smith as Amanda. Her character was fairly well developed, and I was rooting for her the entire time. The rest of the cast also did a great job. The actor who played Jigsaw did an amazing job. The same goes for the actor who played Donnie Walhberg's son. The rest of the victims in the house aren't given much to do other than scream and cry and run and die, but for what they had to do, they did it well.
The acting was better, and so was the pacing. The first film dragged in the middle, but this movie... no chance. There is non-stop action the second the story moves to the house. At no point was I thinking "just get on with it" already. Everything moved quickly, and there are some great edge of your seat moments.
And the violence in the movie is what you would expect. Unrestrained, nasty, and mean. The traps are no where near as complicated as the first film, but are still very effective. There are some moments that just had my jaw on the floor. The movie is very brutal, and doesn't cut away (well... I'll talk about that later). The effects are also very well done, and very realistic. So, this baby earned it's R rating. For gore fans, this is a plus. For the weak stomached viewer... you already know to stay away. I mean the tag line is "Yes... there will be blood." Come on! The ending of the movie (which I will not mention here) also impressed me. It tied the first film in perfectly, and had that nice little bite to it that I was expecting. That's all I'll say about that.
On the negative side... well, the editing is insane. I mean, when something violent is happening, it goes nuts with cuts so quick that I was worried that someone would have a seizure from the rapid rate of the images flashing on the screen. It doesn't really detract from the gore, but at the same time, it makes no sense. Also, the script isn't always the best when it comes to dialogue. Still, no where near as bad as the first film.
So, this is probably the first time I've ever really loved the sequel and hated the original. If they do a third (and I have a feeling they will), then I hope they continue to improve. Maybe they should take a little more time developing the next one though. Cause while I loved this one, it was kind of obvious that it was rushed.