I went to the movie theater last night, and it felt nice. And I don’t go out much, but this is a Saw movie, and it felt like the time was right to go out. It was a very nice experience at the Johnstown Movieplex. I went with 2 friends and we had the theater to ourselves. It was nice because I didn’t feel bad talking during it. This review will be different because I’m not actively watching it. I will do a better review when I have a copy for home.
This film had some highs and lows for me. Obviously, I’m going to cover some spoiler territory but I will warn you ahead of time of anything major. If you don’t want to know any spoilers whatsoever, I will simply tell you that it was fun, Chris Rock was a solid lead. I hope it leads to more films down the road, but it also had some flaws, which you would expect.
I have to say that within the first 10 or 15 minutes, I predicted the killer. There is no real mention of Doctor Gordon, which they could have easily gone down that path. They do talk about John Kramer, of course, but he is only in the film as a picture. As much as I love Tobin Bell, in order for the franchise to move forward, he had to step away for obvious reasons. And I want to say that there is one line that sticks out so badly in the film that it cemented my guess maybe 30 minutes in. Under no circumstances would someone say what the killer said without some sinister undertones or poor writing. We weren’t sure which it was at the time. But it gave us a good laugh. I’m not always good at figuring out who the killer is, but I felt this one was really simple. Just think about who feels out of place.
I think the other thing that people want to know about is the traps. I liked some of them, but they were mediocre compared to the standards that the Saw franchise is known for. For Saw fans, remember when Hoffman was doing some traps that were simply inescapable? That’s what some of them felt like. Others, just seemed stupid.
SPOILERS for the next paragraph
The trap with the female was the dumbest. First of all, how was she supposed to be able to apply enough pressure to sever her spinal cord? And how do you know exactly how to do that? And even worse, why the fuck didn’t she turn her head to the side as hot wax is getting poured on the sheet of whatever that is on her face? And what the fuck was that material? I hated that scene and like, the sense of urgency for Chris Rock to get there seemed lackluster. And why was she the only female killed? I get that it’s 2021, but this fucking horror, god damnit! Also, the first death seemed shitty with the tongue because I thought that he could just sever his tongue, but when he jumps, we see his tongue still there and so much of it is ripped out, I don’t think someone survives that. The fingers one made no sense. How are they attached so firmly to the fingers that you can rip the fingers off? I don’t get the physics of that one. Even the big final death was kinda silly.
END SPOILERS
So yeah, the traps were not very appealing to me. Maybe they will age well, but my guess at the moment is that this will go down as the film with the second-worst traps. Saw 3D (AKA Saw 7) is still the worst. A lack of logic, in my opinion.
I kept waiting for the female chief to be in a Modelo beer commercial. I hope at least one person reading this gets the joke.
There was a lot of hip hop, which may be the first in the franchise. The story makes sense if you dismiss the traps and shut your brain off for a bit. There’s nothing truly cerebral happening. Seriously, nobody is checking for dental records? They didn’t do any tricks with like 2 separate timelines. But they did show a dead person and then revealed the death trap, and fuck, I hate when they do that. What, is this, The Stand 2021? I want to see how it happens before the end result. And nobody survives their death trap, which I didn’t care for. I didn’t really care for Zeke’s (Chris Rock) final test. I did like that Samuel L Jackson’s son is named Ezekiel. You have to at least get that connection….right? Pulp Fiction….Ezekiel 25:17.
The final test wasn’t done with enough true flair. And the thing about the early Saw films is they really pound it in your head that had you just abided by the rules, you walk away type of thing. I feel like this could have been handled better, and I think you will see why.
I know it sounds like I am ragging on the film, but visually, it looked great. The acting was pretty good. The writing had a few hiccups, but a mostly solid story. I want more like this. Chris Rock impressed me.
I do have one final complaint, and it is my biggest gripe. This isn’t a spoiler as it is right in the actual trailer. The “Jigsaw” voice used for the recordings was fucking terrible. Was it supposed to be a teenage emo kid? Was it the high-pitched teenager that is on the Simpsons, like the guy that works at the movie theater? I don’t understand why you don’t go for a better voice. I hated how wimpy the voice was. I don’t know if it was intentional, but please rethink this for future endeavors. There are many ways to sound menacing, but this was not one of them.
Right now, I am happy to give this a rating of around a 6 out of 9.2. I need further viewings to really sort out enough details. It was fun, maybe even good, but this is the 9th film. At best, it is the 7th best, and I would speculate it is only the 8th best. Go out to the theater and see this or other films. Just be responsible.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Lionsgate
- Twisted Pictures
- Serendipity Productions
- Dahlstar
- Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.