Jigsaw: Movie Review (No Spoilers)
Yes, as critics have pointed out numerous times, don't see Jigsaw if you don't like gore or the Saw franchise. It's as simple as that. You will hate it. If this is not the case, feel free to read further.
Ah, another Halloween with a new Saw movie to keep us in the grisly spirit of wincing and laughing at tortured and lost souls! I am partially kidding... but of course, there are endless opportunities here to remember that you must "cherish your life", a message that will repeat so often that it will feel like a slap to the face, or rather, a rusty nail-garnished baseball bat to the head.
In all seriousness, this is what I want from a Halloween movie and nothing more. As I get older I find that I want to cherish Halloween more, and would rather not spend it pondering existentially about the horrifying historical cases of demonic possession while forcing myself to keep the lights off watching The Exorcist or The Conjuring (both incredible movies, however, and there's always a time for that). No, instead I prefer Halloween nowadays to be a more lighthearted night of spooky thrills, dark hallways and lurking killers that always keep you guessing. This is why Jigsaw was perfect popcorn entertainment for my dad and I on Halloween weekend.
Sure, with any cast of completely unknown actors, there are moments of absolutely atrocious acting, but most of them only added to the experience for me as it almost gave the atmosphere a fun B-movie feel. The acting wasn't terrible in the grand scheme of things, but there were classic awful one-liners and misplaced sarcasm- for example, at the beginning of the movie, one of the disposable victims blurts out "Yea, that's not creepy at all!" when Jigsaw's doll first makes an appearance to ominous music. I cringed very visibly.
There was also a great improvement upon at least the last 3 Saw sequels: no longer was the director forcing every scene into a distracting steely green color palette. Many of the sequels had this problem and it deadened the effect of some of the scenes for me because it was as if the director was trying to compensate for a lack of moody setting and give it a gritty realism feel (instead, it just made you feel like you were actually watching smuggled footage and added an unnecessary filter of light to each scene). The more improved Jigsaw editing brought a little less head-spinning cuts, a better color palette, and more inventive camera angles to give the franchise a better feel.
Ok, I suppose I have to briefly touch upon the traps and the "game" atmosphere. There is good tension throughout and some palpable moments of panic as well- in the traps themselves, the actors do a decent job of exuding sheer horror as their lives flash before their eyes. In the trailer, you see a trap where the contestants have metal buckets on their heads. I couldn't take it seriously, it just looked too ridiculous and reminded me of the guitarist Buckethead. There are some decent rustic traps as well, there are blades aplenty, and there is even a laser trap that I thought was actually really well executed. The effects were better than any of the previous sequels, so it finally felt like some money was put into this thing. You laugh, you cringe, and you get on the edge of your seat- pretty much what I want from a mindless action B-movie.
Overall, this is just a solid action movie and not much more. There are great twists, some who-done-it moments, and exciting chases. The traps work either way because they are either laughably bad or interestingly gruesome. The movie will keep you entertained and give you an adrenaline rush- though there is some natural human storytelling, the action rarely ever lets up. What results is, plain and simple, a good American night at the movies- with hopefully the added hilarity of teenagers and moms screaming and covering their eyes throughout the theater
Ah, another Halloween with a new Saw movie to keep us in the grisly spirit of wincing and laughing at tortured and lost souls! I am partially kidding... but of course, there are endless opportunities here to remember that you must "cherish your life", a message that will repeat so often that it will feel like a slap to the face, or rather, a rusty nail-garnished baseball bat to the head.
In all seriousness, this is what I want from a Halloween movie and nothing more. As I get older I find that I want to cherish Halloween more, and would rather not spend it pondering existentially about the horrifying historical cases of demonic possession while forcing myself to keep the lights off watching The Exorcist or The Conjuring (both incredible movies, however, and there's always a time for that). No, instead I prefer Halloween nowadays to be a more lighthearted night of spooky thrills, dark hallways and lurking killers that always keep you guessing. This is why Jigsaw was perfect popcorn entertainment for my dad and I on Halloween weekend.
Sure, with any cast of completely unknown actors, there are moments of absolutely atrocious acting, but most of them only added to the experience for me as it almost gave the atmosphere a fun B-movie feel. The acting wasn't terrible in the grand scheme of things, but there were classic awful one-liners and misplaced sarcasm- for example, at the beginning of the movie, one of the disposable victims blurts out "Yea, that's not creepy at all!" when Jigsaw's doll first makes an appearance to ominous music. I cringed very visibly.
There was also a great improvement upon at least the last 3 Saw sequels: no longer was the director forcing every scene into a distracting steely green color palette. Many of the sequels had this problem and it deadened the effect of some of the scenes for me because it was as if the director was trying to compensate for a lack of moody setting and give it a gritty realism feel (instead, it just made you feel like you were actually watching smuggled footage and added an unnecessary filter of light to each scene). The more improved Jigsaw editing brought a little less head-spinning cuts, a better color palette, and more inventive camera angles to give the franchise a better feel.
Ok, I suppose I have to briefly touch upon the traps and the "game" atmosphere. There is good tension throughout and some palpable moments of panic as well- in the traps themselves, the actors do a decent job of exuding sheer horror as their lives flash before their eyes. In the trailer, you see a trap where the contestants have metal buckets on their heads. I couldn't take it seriously, it just looked too ridiculous and reminded me of the guitarist Buckethead. There are some decent rustic traps as well, there are blades aplenty, and there is even a laser trap that I thought was actually really well executed. The effects were better than any of the previous sequels, so it finally felt like some money was put into this thing. You laugh, you cringe, and you get on the edge of your seat- pretty much what I want from a mindless action B-movie.
Overall, this is just a solid action movie and not much more. There are great twists, some who-done-it moments, and exciting chases. The traps work either way because they are either laughably bad or interestingly gruesome. The movie will keep you entertained and give you an adrenaline rush- though there is some natural human storytelling, the action rarely ever lets up. What results is, plain and simple, a good American night at the movies- with hopefully the added hilarity of teenagers and moms screaming and covering their eyes throughout the theater
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