Review of Saw V (2008) by Dude D — 27 Apr 2010

The film opens with a man strapped to a table above a pendulum. As the sharp blade begins swinging over his stomach, he has only a minute to stop it by inserting his hands into a device that will crush them. When the machine malfunctions, it's clear that it wasn't the work of the meticulous Jigsaw. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Strahm continues the investigation he began in the previous film, only to wake up to find himself wearing a glass helmet filled with water. With a minimum of self-mutilation, he escapes and continues his investigation with the hunch that Detective Hoffman is somehow involved in the new rash of killings. Before long, a new group of strangers wakes up in Jigsaw's lair to face a series of brutal tests.

The new taglines for the latest Saw movies is now "If it's Halloween, it must be Saw" which is actually true since every Halloween, I know that a Saw movie isn't far round the corner. The story is by far the worst in the movies as they start to become more complicating yet answering some questions fans might have had in the previous movies. The acting isn't great at all and is probably the worst I've seen in the series, you just didn't care for the characters and they didn't feel connected to each other at all. The characters were written poorly except for Jigsaw whose past story has been in the last two or three movies. It yet again answers questions asked in the last movie only for them to be replaced with new questions. I liked seeing the traps as the five people were figuring out why they were there and fighting for their lives at the same time which added a nice twist. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as there were poor character development and badly written characters. It would have been much better if they focused on one story instead of two (the characters in the traps and the Jigsaw story). The traps were brilliantly done and the special effects and blood and gore scenes were well executed.

Overall, I liked and hated the movie. I liked the traps and some of the story but other than that, Saw V is just very weak which is a shame to say. The thing I loved about the Saw movies was the unpredictable endings and for this movie's tagline, it says "you won't believe how it ends" yet I did believe it because I predicted it. I thought I would be wrong but I wasn't which surprised me since Saw is normally unpredictable sometimes. However, I shall probably be watching the series still, hoping they improve a little. The traps were good but other than that, this is definitely the weakest in the series.

4/10.

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. I enjoyed it a little bit but as soon as I finished watching it, I forgot it. I wanted it to at least be average but unfortunately it was below average. If you plan on watching this, watch the other movies first otherwise you will be baffled.