Middle of the Road

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2007)

I rate the original Saw as an 8, Saw II as a 7 and this one as a 6. Held my interest but I doubt I'd ever watch it again. I think it is the best acted of the three - Robert the Bruce is definitely a step up. But it lacked the cleverness of the first two - the twists are minor and easy to see coming. Also, it promises much more than it delivers: "Suffering? You haven't seen anything yet." The first Saw had acting problems and a few too many jump cuts - other than that it was solid. The second Saw had better acting but the script was somewhat implausible - I mean Jigsaw's plan relied on everyone doing exactly as he planned. But the final twist was brilliant. This one has far too many implausibilities. You live with Jigsaw the master game player and never suspect he may be playing you? You come across people in deadly peril and you stop to lecture them on how they didn't help when your son was killed? I think I would save them first then administer the lecture. Also it was unclear whether he was allowed to continue regardless of whether he passed the test or not. He didn't seem to pass all of them. The most annoying part was near the end when they started playing back stuff that happened in prior movies so you could understand the "master" plan. But then they started showing scenes that had just happened three minutes ago. We really didn't need those flashbacks, thank you. And the whole movie is a setup for a sequel (presumably the last possible film in the sequence unless they do prequels as well). Another poster commented that Jigsaw's early traps were unfair - I believe this is explained near the end of the movie. But the victims in this one do seem a lot more "innocent" than in the first two films.