Second one's the best, but this is still pretty good

Rating: 6/10 (30 October 2006)

Warning: Don't read this review if you haven't seen the first two Saws.
With any movie that turns into a franchise, there is usually a distinct taste on the palette that the characters are getting a bit old. The story is becoming less novel and more traditional. Special effects take the place of solid story and tension. There are always exceptions that prove these rules, but Saw III is not one of them. In Tobin Bell's third outing playing the mastermind of Jigsaw, there is a distinctly stale taste in the air, a taste that works against the movie from the first frame to its last. Though Saw III does have plenty of good moments, it sacrifices story for gore, characters for gore, and good story for gore. Gore gore gore.
I don't want to give away too much of the story, but the basic plot is that Jigsaw and his new apprentice Amanda have kidnapped an expert in the field of brain surgery for the purpose of keeping Jigsaw alive as he plays one final game. The story intercuts between scenes with Jigsaw and this doctor, and a man named Jeff who must go through a series of puzzles/games as he tries to find the man who killed his daughter.
The film's biggest strength is the character of Amanda - whom we see briefly in the first one and more of in the second. In this outing, we see, through a series of flashbacks and how she is reacting to Jigsaw's imminent death, her character in much more depth. Obviously, it's nothing Oscar worthy, but it does add a little bit of spice to the franchise as a whole. We see scenes that extend all the way back to the first movie, which ends up working out pretty well.
Jeff, the guy who must find the man who has killed his daughter, is played by a less-than-stellar actor, but that's okay. He goes through all the motions of grief, pain, blah blah blah, but there's nothing really special there. Donnie Wahlberg, playing the cop who had his son kidnapped in the second film, was much better. Jeff's character is just basically a shallow revenge driven man. There are a couple of powerful moments in the film that emphasize mercy, forgiveness, and compassion, but these are eclipsed by the mountain of gore that is always sure to follow.
That is another of the film's weaknesses. All the gore. Of course, in a slasher flick, one wants a lot of gore - and if that is all you are looking for, it will not leave you disappointed. But the first two Saws managed to be creative in their gore, not giving us too much, giving us just enough, so that we were never overdosed. Though there is a fair amount of creative gore in the movie (the traps that Jigsaw and Amanda design are some of the most creative in the series), some of the gore just seems excessive. At one point Jigsaw must undergo brain surgery, and the film shows us every last bit of that. By the time the outer layer of skin had come off, I was going through the motions of being disgusted, but in all reality, it had worn off completely - the gore desensitizes in this film.
Jigsaw, who has always been the creative mastermind in the first two films, now lies completely incapacitated on a bed throughout the entire thing. He loses a lot of his fire, a lot of his mystery. The second one managed to show us Jigsaw in a vulnerable position, yet by doing that in the way they did he only seemed that much more twistedly clever. In this one he's just a body in a bed. Though the ending does redeem him a little bit, this is a character who has definitely seen better days.
The score of the film is fairly good. It has liberal doses of the original ending theme, "Hello Zepp" done in new and different ways. The rest of the music is traditional gore fest music, nothing too exceptional. The ending piece of music fell a little bit flat, too, it didn't really soar like the piece in the first or second one. And the fact that the ending fell flatter than the first two as well didn't work too well for me either. The tension in the film is lacking, too - because of the excessive gore, but also because of all the focus on Amanda - I did say that was one of the film's strengths, but a more effective balance would have helped the tension tremendously.
As much as I may be ragging on this movie, I did enjoy it. The new focus on Amanda was enjoyable, Jigsaw's creepy voice was once again, very well done, the gore was creative in many places and there were many more traps than the first two combined, and Angus Macfadyen, the man who plays Jeff, did a reasonably well job under the circumstances. The worst part about all this is that because it has shown to be so successful, earning 34 million over the weekend, beating the Halloween weekend record, Lionsgate has announced plans to make a Saw IV. Please, people. This may have been a good series, but the Saw franchise has definitely breathed its last. It was good while it lasted - one of the few slasher flicks that I actually respected and looked forward to. But towards the end of the film plot possibilities could definitely be seen to be wearing thin. Saw III was a good and enjoyable film, but Saw IV? No thanks. Ah well. I suppose I'll just sit back and enjoy this most recent installment while it still remains a reasonably satisfying conclusion to a great trilogy.