Review of Saw II (2005) by Derek R — 20 Apr 2015

While not as engaging as the first movie, I still found this second installment to be really worth while and interesting most of the way through. The story was engaging, you learn new facts about Jigsaw on why he does what he does, the violence was once again disturbing and well put together, and Charlie Clouser's score was fantastic here like it was on the last movie.

Donnie Wahlberg I thought gave a good performance but the stand out was Tobin Bell as Jigsaw. He gets a lot more screen time in this movie and the scenes between him and Detective Matthews were among the best in the whole movie.

Jigsaw is a villain with a motive and as you watch the movie you can understand why he sets up all these elaborate games on his victims. This film also follows a group of unknowns in a abandoned house and the situation they went through was interesting to watch and none of them were too bad acting wise.

They were disposable characters, but I thought their situation kept me engaged and the film's pacing was tight. The twist at the end was really clever as it was on the last movie and it makes the 1 hr and 30 minute run time more worth while to sit through.

While Darren Lynn Bousman's directing was solid, I didn't think he did as good of a job as James Wan did and his quick cut style wasn't as fluent as James Wan's was. In the end, I may be in the minority with this movie but I thought the movie succeeded on what it was set out to do.