January 4, 2012

• Saw VII

  I don't know why I bothered to waste my money when I knew good and well what I was getting myself into.  "You have to complete the series," I thought.  "It has to be finished."  What's worse is that I didn't even have to be nagged by the thoughts longer than 30 seconds before I caved.  Fine, fine.  I'll buy the damn thing. It's on sale anyway.  Maybe it'll be good, seeing as how they brought Cary Ewles back into the picture.  Maybe they'll close this series good and proper like, since it's in dire need of it.  But boy was I ever wrong.  Just when I thought the movies couldn't get any worse, I was proven wrong.  And rather than just view the dang thing on Netflix or something, I go and waste 20 bucks on it because I just had to "complete the series," even when my liking of the films stopped after part III.  And though it was a BIT refreshing to finally get some closure on the fate of Dr. Gordon, it was not to sort of closure I was after.  Worse yet, it made no sense at all.  Sad to say that even Cary Ewles couldn't save the franchise, if it was even salvageable.  But alas, it wasn't.

  It doesn't even merit a review, since it's the same crud dished out by all the previous films that DIDN'T have a living Jigsaw.  After the demise of the real villain, the films simply had nowhere to go but down.  They've mutated from "life lessons taught by a man at death's door" to "man who just likes to kill people for no reason at all."  In other words, the Saw franchise has sadly stooped to being just another horrific slasher flick that you can't even try in the slightest of ways to care about.  At least in the first 3 movies, you really feel for what Jigsaw's trying to "teach" his victims.  They're valuable life lessons combined with numerous unfortunate deaths.  Oh of course they're all gross and disgusting, but the lessons are still good ones.  But after the 3rd film, that crucial element began to slip away.  The Saw movies had to run on the fumes of grotesque gore without purpose, without the advantage of a villainous mastermind at the wheel.  It's a shame they had to kill off the real villain of the films, but I suppose there was no telling how successful the films would be before they were released.  I'm sure the creators are just kicking themselves.  Genius horror evolved to lowly gore.

  And Dr. Gordon? Why, this latest and final addition to the franchise reveals him to be an accomplish of Jigsaw's too!  Yep.  He got to survive, get found by Jigsaw, and got nursed back to health by him.  And then, for some unknown reason, decides to grant Jigsaw's requested favor of looking out for Jill, Jigsaw's widow. Umm...okay?  As an added bonus, he got to help Jigsaw set up his future traps using his great doctor skills, such as sewing shut some eyelids, or surgically implanting a key into someone's skull.  Umm...WHAT?  So apparently, he had forgotten all about his reasons for escaping in the first place (his wife and daughter), and decides to team up with Jigsaw out of the goodness of his heart, even despite having sliced off his foot to escape the predicament that Jigsaw put him in.  I suppose we're supposed to believe that the process changed his mindset and caused him to side with Jigsaw's cause. He got to be in the conclusion of the movie, having locked the OTHER villain into the very bathroom grave from the first film to meet his own demise.  All in all, just so ridiculous. Too ridiculous.  Too many scattered deaths with no reason other than to gross you out and outdo each other.  And no life lessons.    

  Just a waste of money, which I knew it would be.  I will likely just do away with most of the Saw movies, starting with part 4 or 5.  This is a franchise that didn't need to be completed, since the true "spirit," of the series died early in anyway.  That's the point they were completed, in my opinion. After that, it's just no need to finish it.  Bleh.

  • 11:18 pm
  • 1 Comment