Saw: Legacy 2017 Movie Review: Talk about ending on a whimper. This movie does not play out like a definitive chapter to a franchise nearly as much as it plays out like just another sequel product from the assembly line in the now perfunctory franchise that pretty much lost its way after Saw III. It does more of the same with zero plot, zero surprises, ample gore of course, and then tacks on an abrupt twist ending you saw coming from the start just out of the sheer simple obligation of wrapping up the whole series in a painfully convenient and arbitrary bow. It just ends with a thud and just illustrates what I've thought for years. This franchise had nothing to say and no point to go on the way it did. The series was dead after Saw III. Lionsgate was just flogging a dead horse four more times until that horse could no longer bleed at the box office. This is a lazy, unsatisfying end for fans of this series.
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This film was laced with careless plot holes. It didn't envelop the best parts of the Saw franchise and was a truly unfitting finish. The colorant used in SFX is poor quality- this means the blood is tinted a luminous pink which certainly offsets the tone of the film. The finale had little finesse and left avid fans questioning whether this is *really* it? If so, it's disappointing.
The film introduces us to Bobby Dagen. Bobby Dagen lies about being in a Jigsaw trap. He makes money off of his falsified story of survival. Jigsaw, naturally, hunts him down wanting to force him to really experience the story he has dramatized so very much. For Bobby to survive, he has to attempt to save his equally dishonest colleagues who have supported his lies from the beginning. He must make his way through the test, spending the time to save his colleagues if he can, and get to his wife in time before she is, literally, incinerated.
The premise of this particular film sounds gripping but the reality? Lukewarm at best. A thoroughly disappointing and lazy tie off to what has been a complex and structured series up to this film's release. I hope, for the producers' sake, there is a Saw 8 so that some attempt can be made to redeem themselves. Poor show.
The final chapter of the series, Saw 3D is a nonsensical and gratuitous horror film. After failing to kill Hoffman, Jill Tuck seeks police protection; meanwhile, Hoffman sets up one final Jigsaw trap for a motivational speaker who's been lying about being a Jigsaw survivor. Cary Elwes' much-publicized return proves to be underwhelming, and none of the performances are really that good. The traps are also rather unremarkable and don't have the same kind of stakes or challenge that those of the past have had. Additionally, the special effects are really cheesy and the gore is cartoonish. Going for cheap scares, Saw 3D is a disappointing conclusion to a seminal horror series.
Let me just start off by not calling this Saw 3-D, I'm gonna call it Saw 7, the reason for this is that the 3-D is almost nonexistent, so much in fact that it makes Piranha 3-D from earlier this year look like Avatar. Now, as for the story, there is a lot of it. The series kind of comes full circle here, and any true Saw fan, which I am, should know or at least make an educated guess as to where it's going, now, does it make any sense, and the answer is Yes, but it takes a lot of thinking and remembering the series to get there. It starts out with a group of Jigsaw survivors in a therapy group, led by fellow survivor Bobby Dagen, you remember him right, No, well good you shouldn't because he's only pretending to be a survivor so that he can promote the book he wrote about it, now Jigsaw, of course, knows that he is not a survivor and kidnaps him and his wife so that he can be tested for real. In the other part of the story, Jill Tuck tells the police that Hoffman is the one that is behind all of this, which leads Hoffman to make the police an offer of no more killings for Jill, of course, the police think that they are smarter and try to find Hoffman and stop him themselves. How does it end up, how does it all end, well I'm not going to give it away, and unfortunately I think that the series is finally over, it's not the best or the worst of the series, but it does end it well and for that it is good, so if you're a fan, definitely see it, and if you're not, your loss. GAME OVER
It's crazy to think that they got all the way up to seven films with this series, even if in the grand scheme of things it doesn't feel like too much to me, and it has come a long way from what the original film was. And honestly, given the way the story develops, it was time to wrap it up. 'Saw 3D', or rather, 'Saw VII', finally brings the story full circle, but it isn't as refined as the other films.
The film starts out like all the other sequels by showing us a trap but the time has finally come where it never plays back into the film in any way at all. I also questioned why no one had done anything yet to help them out; I liked the build up to it with a big group of people looking around but surely people would have noticed them before they did in this film? It also seemed like the trap could have been beaten easily as it looked like you could have moved the buzzsaw one way or another just a little bit with a person moving out of the way and everyone would have been okay, but I doubt it, it was just from the way it was filmed is why I'm saying that. But of course, it gives an excuse to showcase some of the 3D! The film is going to have some blatant 3D moments and of course most of the taglines are about the 3D but they still made them fit, some aren't so obvious like the way we see the buzzsaw in the first trap, but thinks like the dream sequence or the saw being thrown out of the room are more obvious, but they still managed to have them fit in the film. The technicals are fine as ever but the opening titles are done in a 3D way, but once again, it makes sense. It has the same director/editor as the last film, although 'Saw V' director David Hackl was originally approached, and everything remains well done, the editing was good although it seemed to cut away pretty quick when the person at the end put the hooks in for the first time and it has the blurry cinematography when it is a flashback but there seemed to be no emphasis on a certain colour like green or orange. The recording they play at one point sounds like the Dalek Emperor and even the final trap had a Dalek sound effect. But the film had some clichés in it, with the overused gasp sound effect for the group of people watching outside and with Gibson eating his apple in the room he was in at the time; however, they pretty much stopped there.
I do have to wonder if they went out of their way to show more, like the dream sequence, on purpose for the sheer fact that it is 3D or because it was in the script, to begin with. They make it fit well into the story but I only say that because they merged the planned 'Saw VIII' and 'Saw 3D' together because of the decrease in box office performance of the last film, but with this film the box office went right back up to its usual, most likely thanks to the 3D. Despite that being a confusing way of numbering the titles, I wondered what they had intended the story to be of those films. I always praised the 'Saw' films for actually furthering the story in the sequels as well as having as many sequels as they needed just to actually finish the story but knowing this, who knows?
As I have mentioned in other reviews I really do not like saying anything bad about acting but honestly, some of the acting in this film really isn't that great. All the main actors from the previous films are fine as ever it is just the new ones introduced in this film. The people in the first trap when they are introduced insult each other by saying the same thing and it seemed kind of laughable. The officer that says, 'We got a live one here', couldn't have put less effort in if he tried, the way Joyce says things like, 'I knew you could do it' sounded really off-putting for some reason, as well as some other times where Holden acted like she was in a different scene to what she was actually in. Gibson was the worst though, Chad Donella, while constantly reminding me of Christian Bale, with Sean Patrick Flannery reminding me of Edward Norton at the point, did do a good job, for the most part, it's just some of his lines are bad. The way he keeps saying crazy at one point to Jill was a double take moment as what I was hearing was very, very weird. He was bad anyway because he reported Hoffman for saving his life, really? He shot the guy, big deal; you're still alive, aren't you? It also seemed kind of odd that he would only give Jill immunity after she told her information, that is probably what they do anyway, but would you really give someone immunity after they have given you what you wanted? And he used QuickTime on his computer, and who does that? And, hey, he was in 'Final Destination' as well, which I think is a nice little coincidence.
The main game was good as it used the three wise monkeys vibe as well as punishing the guy that was faking it, which I worked out early on and liked. I liked the theme that Kramer presented when he met Dagen as of course what Dagen was doing had obvious problems and it was cool to see Kramer in that casual getup. The story still fits into the same theme that the series is known for and it all works well. Like in the other films, be it coincidence or not, when there were 60 minutes left on the timer, there was an hour left of the film, but it doesn't stay in sync for long, however, the 60 seconds of that blind game was ridiculous. As the film went on and seeing that there were only 10 minutes left, in a film that was exactly 90 minutes, I questioned how everything was going to be wrapped up nicely in just 10 minutes and while it works, it felt a little rushed. Jill changed back into what she was before the last film and I felt sorry for her getting hit in the stomach all the time, she really has no luck; but at least we see that reverse bear-trap in action! Hoffman has completely lost it now and it even has Chester Bennington in this! It just seemed so random, but I guess this time he wounds truly will not heal. That sequence could be called pointless but it works into the plot and it even seemed to have some humor with the, '...is anyone hurt?' line and then having an explosion. There was also the part at the beginning where the puppet got knocked over by some organs, I think, and I'm pretty sure that was the last we saw of the puppet.
The same writers that have worked on many other previous installments return once more but it felt much different. Even though it would have made absolutely no sense I thought Strahm was going to come back at one point just because of how the person's voice sounded but we are introduced to this character but it obviously wasn't him. However, given his reveal and everyone acting weird, it's odd then that characters refer to him as being a regular member of this group; why the big in-the-shadows-reveal, then? Looking back on it, that was clearly for us as for why would a regular member suddenly does that kind of thing then and then that character then goes away for a huge majority of the film. Some might say that they do not want things like that explained but I think it is a good thing as it does give the feel of the closure showing that character again. He shows up again in the last few minutes and we find out what happened to him and we see that he didn't go back to help Adam after all, but I guess it makes sense considering what happens to him, somewhat? He looks at the foot, we get two game overs, even if Hoffman says his after that other person has died, which could be considered a cliché if you wanted and everything ends where it was begun, even if I am surprised nobody has found that house yet.
It's crazy to think that the main person, John Kramer, who is behind all of this, isn't alive for the majority of them, with Hoffman taking over that position. It's funny how Oren Koules spoke about this going to a TV show, despite the fact that he doesn't like this series because of the violence, which, making a TV show out of this, is something that I thought from the start. I always did question the poster though with the giant Kramer on it though, I thought it had to do with something involving a giant robot or something when I originally saw it years ago. But I truly would call this a saga as it is a very unique film series and really did amaze me with its story and characters. There are talks of making some more or something but this is called 'The Final Chapter' so it would seem odd. A TV reboot or something, sure, maybe, but considering those 10th-anniversary numbers, who knows? Nevertheless, 'Saw VII', wraps up the story nicely and brings back some old elements from the series' roots but, like I said, isn't quite as refined as the rest.
