Sunday 28 August 2011

Saw: The Final Chapter (2010)

 THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Oh, man, this movie was something special. I kind of love this movie. It has nothing to do with it being good or having a good story or anything like that. No, I love this movie because it so bad that it is hilarious and fun to watch. Really bad and really fun!

This finale feels like some sort of self parody, not a serious end to the franchise. It seems as if the people who made this movie were having a laugh and giving the finger to people who truly cared about this series.

The movie suffers from many things. One of these things is bad acting. Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is comically transparent and evil - though he always was – but now it just feels ridiculous. Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) always wears the same facial expression and Detective Matt Gibson (Chad Donella) was impossible to take seriously due to the terrible acting.

On top of this we have a nonsensical plot. Someone (Sean Patrick Flanery) claims to have escaped Jigsaw’s game and has released a book to show how great he now finds life. Of course, this guy is a phony, but no one seems to understand this. Surely someone would examine the scars on his body or have questioned him thoroughly or something to expose him. Also, this book is mean to have been released and all within the timeline of the films. This doesn’t seem likely to me.

Of course it is him put in the game, where he is given some of the most impossible tasks so far. So impossible we realise this series has given up and just started killing people willy nilly.

Which is why it is now a slasher flick. Oh yeah, Hoffman goes around shanking dudes just because. Obviously he learned nothing from Jigsaw, making everything in the previous films pointless.

So, basically, this franchise has now lost all of its identity just for blood, death, gore, violence and a body count. This is even the first Saw film (and, of course, last) to have an opening death scene that is never brought up. And this death scene takes place in public, for some reason, where a bunch of idiots just crowd around and watch as people show how terrible they are at acting.

Oh, and it turns out Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) is alive and is now the new Jigsaw. Only took them 6 movies to bring him back for a terrible twist ending. We now have no idea what Kramer’s legacy really is because there is no legacy shown. We can’t assume anything because we aren’t given the appropriate material to base a judgement on anything. It’s stupid.

But despite all of this I loved this film, purely because it was so bad. It was almost glorious in how it tried to ruin the series. It isn’t quite up to par with Highlander II levels of ruination, but it goes for it.

But here we are, at the end of this series. What have I learned?

Well, for one, don’t let unfounded prejudices stop you from watching films, you might be pleasantly surprised. Also, that torture porn is somewhat lucrative, but mostly idiotic in this day and age. And finally, the Saw franchise is completely mental!

Final Verdict: 1/10

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A Note On Ratings

This system is now defunct as I no longer use ratings. However, this is kept here just for older reviews.

I honestly believe that with a 10-point scale you can't gain everything from a review, however this is an easy way to quickly gauge my feelings as well as useful for comparisons.

Some reviews using the 10-point scale like to have 7 as an average for their reviews, however I prefer to use 5 as an average. The following also shows the colour coding I use:

0: May well be the worst thing ever made. Ever.
1-3: It's not good. At all.
4-6:: It's pretty much average. Not good, but not bad.
7-9: It's pretty good, with hardly any faults.
10: It's damn near perfect and may as well have been made by God!