As mentioned in my previous blog entry I was inspired to watch this by checking out the advance publicity for the next in the series, it was one of those DVD's that I had bought and left on the shelf, to watch someday. It got forgotten when I gave up on the franchise after watching number 3, and as I grew increasingly weary of the assembly-line release of still more films, as the tagline says "you think it is over, but the games have just begun." Finally motivated to watch it I slipped the disc in on a lonely night this Saturday and was quite surprised, but pleasantly. The movie was nowhere near as bad as I feared, actually holding my attention quite well and not seeming at all like the waste of time I'd expected, half poised to switch off before the end. Don't get me wrong there are flaws (I'll get to that) and this is far from a great or classic movie, and to be honest if you aren't a Saw fan then you might as well take a star off my eventual score, likewise if you haven't seen any of the movies then take away 2, this is not the place to start. That said I quite enjoyed it.
(SPOILER ALERT – If you haven’t seen Saw 4 and ever plan on coming to it fresh then stop reading right now!).
Let's start with the problems, the films now seem increasingly reliant on gore and torture leading to new ways of showing blood, guts, body parts etc at the expense of plot. There is more attention to the "Eurgh" response which annoys me as a viewer who likes at least some plot to back it up. From an opening autopsy scene which actually had me shouting to get on with it to traps so ridiculous and jarring they hold up to no analysis and seem designed for pure shock value only. Similarly while the plot is good in some ways, that I shall mention, the same flaws are still present that I mentioned in my Saw 2 review, even 2 films later. These include inescapable traps, nonsenscial motivations, and shocks and surprises which contradict and confound. Anyone wanting to pick the plot of this apart has an easy job.
Despite that though it has more of a plot thread than I was expecting. This time we follow SWAT Commander Rigg in his personal test (not dissimilar to how the whole of Saw 2 was ultimately a test for Detective Matthews (who makes a welcome and fairly cool return). Along the way we cleverly but not bafflingly follow various non-linear strands including the investigation of an apparent accomplice to the now deceased Jigsaw and Amanda, and crucially and brilliantly John Kramer's motivation for becoming the serial killer Jigsaw and his very first trap (it has a purpose, this is all stuff that was touched upon or detailed in the graphic novel spun off from the earlier films but so cool to see, actual character stuff I was not expecting).
The traps themselves do the job they are there for I guess, naturally some ennui has set in by now so some fall short while others seem to border on genius (I loved the woman being connected to her husband by steel rods through his major arteries but not hers so she held his fate in her hands, that's the kind of poetic justice that makes the villain so much more interesting than the hack, slash, gore factor). To be avoided are traps like the opening one where two people are pitted against one another, in this case deprived of different senses, but one has to die.
As things conclude it's jarring but great when we see cameos from people across all previous movies in the flashback pieces, until eventually we see that these events are playing out simultaneously with those from the third movie (the only way they can make sense really). That said the final reveal of Detective Hoffman as the heir to the legacy and our new villain seems like an attempt to replicate the effect of the same reveals of Jigsaw in the first movie and Amanda in the second, it fals short and is a bit confusing (though I read this is cleared up in the next film, which I do plan to buy and watch, being quite psyched for the next 2 now). It reeks of wanting to keep the franchise running despite killing off the guy who made it, thus emphasising how dumb this was!
Overall an enjoyable piece if you don't overthink it, better if you've been following all the films and paying attention but for me...
*** (3/5)
MM
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