Review of Saw III (2006) by Logan M — 13 Nov 2017

I always remember liking the first three Saw films. I've seen them all more than once, but this time around, the third installment felt like it was missing a ton. It was a steep drop from the first two films.

Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) never actively killed his subjects. He put them in situations where they were forced to inflict pain in order to survive. When Amanda (Shawnee Smith) makes her traps unwinnable, she herself gets put in a trap.

However, the main trap Jigsaw sets in this film, sees the fates of several characters left up to Jeff (Angus Macfadyen). Those people (Danica, Timothy and Judge Halden) were not given the chance to survive on their own.

It goes against Jigsaw's mantra and throws the entire film off. In addition, the Jeff character is grossly unlikable. He doesn't experience a character arc or any growth, making it feel like we sat through everything for no reason.

There are several scenes in the early stages that make it take too long to get into the core game, whereas the first two movies got nearly right into what mattered. If the time before Jeff came into the story was cut down, the film wouldn't feel like it dragged on.

They seemed to want to tie up loose ends (Detective Matthews' fate and Detective Kerry knowing the most about Jigsaw) to start and it resulted in a dull first act. There were a few positives. The traps, a selling point of the franchise, were creative and the most brutal so far.

The relationship between Jigsaw and Amanda was intriguing, as well as the hints into Jigsaw's past. I do consider this a tipping point in the franchise, as it became the first to have gore for the sake of gore.

The scene where we watch Jigsaw get brain surgery felt like something they purely put in because they knew it'd make people squeamish, which became a staple of the films going forward.