I saw Saw III, but it this Saw is rusty

Here I am with my timely review of a DVD that came out several weeks ago...

I am kind of a fan of the Saw series. I saw the first one and was blown away by some of the twists and turns in the movie. I also liked the main villains plans to test people by playing games. In the movies, his victims are kidnapped and usually wake up to find themselves in a precarious position and a very short time to get themselves out of it. Most of the time, the game player has to do something very unappealing to get themselves out, but the end result if they don't is death.

It's a grim movie, but from time to time, I feel the need to watch grim movies like this. I think I get in the mood when I'm under some stress.

Another reason I watched them is because it's like driving by an accident. You wonder how it happened and who's hurt. I watch and wonder what I would do in these situations. Probably as well as the victims in the movies since I'm kind of a klutz and prone to injure myself at any mundane moment.

I thought Saw 1 was pretty good. Saw 2 was good, too. Then I rented Saw 3. From the get go, I'm a little uneasy about this Saw. Things just don't seem right. Stop reading if you don't want spoilers by the way.

It takes a long time to set up this movie. By the time we get to the actual game, the movie is well over 30 minutes in. The first set of games probably could have been set up in flashbacks.

So our villain Jigsaw is still testing people. He also has an understudy in the whiny Amanda. Amanda kidnaps a doctor to keep our Saw alive, who is suffering from brain tumor. The swelling on his brain is causing him very limited mobility. The game starts with a dual game of the doctor having to keep Jigsaw alive while wearing a trap tied to his heart rate. At the same time, a game is starting with a man that had his son killed by a driver. He can't get past it and even scolds his daughter for touching his 'things' in the kid's room. He wakes up in a crate and must go through a series of tests. In a twist on the first films, he's not stuck in a trap, people related to his son's death are in traps. He must decide to free them or let them die.

In my opinion, this was a huge mistake. The traps are too easy for him to get out of and yet he manages to mess them up.

This live-or-die scenario is only interesting for a short time. Much of the time is spent watching the traps move as the people that are strapped in edging closer to death while Jeff agonizes about saving them. To me, this would be a no brainer. As much as I would be angry about a family member's death, I'm not a killer and I could find it in my heart to forgive someone, especially when it was circumstances beyond my control. Jeff, as with all of Saw's protagonists, they never learn their lesson, so we are forced to watch Jeff, close his eyes, moan, curse the sky, agonize, yell, scream, cry, etc. You name the emotion, Jeff emotes it.

It was right at this spot when I realized why things didn't sit well with me. The man in the last test is strapped up in a large machine that will slowly twist his arms, legs and neck (in that order). This man is not a small man (probably around 230 pounds) and is off the ground a bit. Seeing him in that state suddenly made it clear, who in the hell put this guy up there? Jigsaw is a zombie and his assistant is barely 130 lbs. Besides the fact, Jeff, the "hero" in this movie, is no spring chicken himself.

Also, by my count, there were 6 people kidnapped and put in place for this test. How does one accomplish that in a big city and not get noticed? Amanda would literally have to have a large delivery truck complete with huge vials of chloroform to keep people knocked out. Think of all the planning that would have to go in this. You'd have to kidnap them one at a time in various locations around the city. One person gets kidnapped in a hospital locker room of all places. I'm sure the security guards and camera caught none of that.

So you have to break in to someone's place of residence, kidnap them, drag them to the van while avoiding detection, tie them up, drive to another place, kidnap that person, drag them to the van while avoiding detection, repeat until all are kidnapped, take them to their various places (all the while making sure they are chloroformed enough to avoid waking up too early) and getting all the traps in place without dying yourself. It's no wonder Amanda is freaking out at this point. She's running herself ragged!

So Saw tries hard to break their own molds in the third incarnation, but I think their emphasis on emotional traps runs a little hollow, especially since the only thing I found disturbing in this movie wasn't even violent. A little girl is scolded by her Dad for playing with her dead brother's toys and after all the gruesome incidents in the movie, all I can think of it how sad she looked.

If you like this sort of thing, I guess I'd recommend it, but if you aren't a fan of these types of movies, I'd avoid it.