The art of giving people what they want

Rating: 3/10 (22 July 2007)

The first two movies were more than enough to surface what people REALLY expect from the movie: violence, plenty of it, and not much more than it aside from good dosages of cruelty and "morals" - as in, yes, it's justifiable and COOL to kill people who don't appreciate life, and miss the perverse irony (though I'd call it stupidity) that the person who wants to teach others to appreciate life does little to appreciate life, himself. Of course, intelligence is not exactly in the movie's plans, as many fans of the second movie were unable to understand what "over the rainbow" stood for, so we have to keep it simple and dumb. And that's what you get here.
Interestingly enough, this is the movie that pulls all stops in making the most mind-bendingly repetitive and inane sequences in the series, with a dozen edits per second and annoying background music, as well as bunches of flashbacks that don't really explain much, and are probably there to earn a few more minutes of running time. They really need it, because the plot can barely contribute with ANY entertainment value. The characters are rough caricatures trying to pass themselves off as real, tortured humans, and the story itself, well... the first two movies already displayed what kinds of tricks the writers are willing to pull off, and Saw 2 brings absolutely no surprises. You already expect the Super Plot Twist at the end, as well as the annoying "dark ambient" theme tune, and everything is there. At least, this time around, the unfolding of the events is a considerably more believable - keeping in mind that Saw looked like it had no respect for its viewers' intelligence, and Saw 2 was an open insult against reason. But when there isn't a "trap" scene going on, the pacing is awfully slow and constantly interrupted by senseless flashbacks (really, what IS the point of going back to the set up of the first movie? Just to counter the criticism of its contrived, impossible ending? Filling up the plot holes, are we...), leaving very little flow to the movie. It's a poorly hacked together horror piece of trash, but it improves somewhat on the second movie - which REALLY isn't saying much.
The torture scenes, though, are an unnecessary strain to sit through. Yes, they are very explicitly violent and gross, but if that's what you want, you're better off with George A. Romero. This stuff takes itself too seriously. It's "violence for a REASON", and yes, it's granted to convert many people to the Church of Jigsaw - if you doubt me, check out the forums at IMDb. But unless you're very, very curious, leave Saw 3 alone. Really.