Review

Saw III opens on Detective Matthews. Last seen at the end of Saw II, Matthews was locked in the same bathroom from the first film, fighting for his life. After a disturbing and intense scene detailing Matthews's attempt to free himself from a nifty little leg shackle (VERY intense) and a brief cameo from Kerry (Dina Meyer, the only other carry-over from the first two flicks), the film moves forward.

Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is on his deathbed. As we learnt in the previous pictures, Jigsaw has an inoperable brain tumour that is all but guaranteed to end his life. Amanda (Shawnee Smith) is his right hand woman and has taken over as the main rigger on his various torture devices. The trick is, Amanda is one angry chick and she is not fond of Jigsaw's theory that every device should actually have an escape. Where he would always rig his torture tools to have an escape route, in effect giving his victims the opportunity to choose their life over death, Amanda would much rather watch them suffer. She is nothing but a big fat cheater.

Amanda captures Lynn, a doctor who of course has led a wicked life. She has cheated on her husband and often partakes in a little pill popping to make the day fly by. She also has the means to prolong Jigsaw's life. After rigging her neck with an explosive device that will blow her head off if Jigsaw dies, the race is on for the doctor to either figure a way out or save Jigsaw's life.

At the same time, Jigsaw and Amanda have another game in action. Jeff is an estranged husband and father, distraught after the recent accidental death of his son. He still has a wife and daughter, but Jeff has decided to cling to anger, hate and revenge instead of loving the ones still in his life. Jig and Amanda have given Jeff numerous tests to determine how far he is willing to go in order to exact his revenge. As he goes through his 'game', he encounters the others he holds responsible for both his son's death as well as the killer's subsequent release from prison. And of course anyone who has seen these films knows that all of these plot points are part of a much larger picture, one that I will not give away here.

The franchise is now down to simply finding ways to kill people for a braindead audience

We go through the film as these games all play their part and we encounter many more spiffy new torture devices. It is very good to know that Jigsaw's tumour has not affected his sadistic vision of 'justice'. We also get more insight into the history of how Jigsaw and Amanda came to work together, as if the filmmakers felt they needed a much deeper explanation than was given in Saw II. They really didn't.

Saw III is much more graphic and does have scenes of intense violence. The first three tortures especially made me wince, Det. Matthews' ordeal even made me look AWAY from the screen, something I never do unless Salma Hayek happens to be sitting to my right. So if you are looking for a graphic, bloody, violent and disturbing experience you will love this.

If you are like me, on the other hand, you will be disappointed. I love my gore, but I want plot and pacing too. I felt the film was too heavy-handed on the Jigsaw and Amanda relationship. I am all about backstory, but this was simply boring. Amanda was simply angry, whiny and tried WAY too hard to be a badass. She was sick, he was trying to help by making her sicker and he became a daddy figure. Got it, move on. Jigsaw was one of the most interesting serial killers to watch in the last film, now he is nothing more than a bedridden sadistic Yoda for a whiny little Skywalker.

Also, one of the film's points is how Jigsaw is giving the victims an opportunity to choose their fate, but Amanda refuses to abide by those rules. While that is an interesting paradox, it also takes away from the intensity of the film. One of Saw's most enduring suspenseful points was that you were never sure if the victim would pull off what was expected or if they would simply have to suffer their fate. In this film, you know they won't so it is just a matter of when and how they will die. It killed any suspense the film had going for it. This was a major disappointment to me and I was extremely irritated with this approach by the filmmakers.

The acting was fine by everyone but Shawnee Smith. Maybe it was just me, but I never bought her as this evil Jigsaw Jr in the making. She was simply too girly and trying too hard to convince me. Bell does what he can with what was once a promising role, only this time his character really has nowhere to go and nothing interesting to do. The films best performance actually comes from Donnie Wahlberg's brief return as Det. Matthews as he was the only person I felt for in the entire film. This is the Saw film that turned the corner. No more characters to root for, you are just waiting on their demise.

The direction was about the same as II, only with more MTV editing. The director, Darren Bousman, has returned from Saw II to helm the third film and nothing much has changed in his approach. He spends way too much time speeding up the scenes to make them look much more interesting than they truly are. He also has never met a jump-cut that he did not like. There is one scene where Lynn is literally preparing a tray for a minor surgery. Instead of just showing Lynn walking and preparing, he cuts the scene in flashes where it cuts / speeds up 2 seconds / cuts / speeds up. It is very amateurish and very annoying. Please, for the IV film, fire this dumbass and bring in a director who is okay with standing still for longer than ten seconds at a time. This guy is on crack and needs an intervention.

The ending is a hair twisty, but nothing compared to the first two flicks. If you really pay attention, you can see it coming at roughly the twenty minute mark, another factor I was disappointed with. The only other positive thing I can say about the film was that I really did like how they revisited the first two films in flashbacks showing how Jigsaw pulled some of these feats off, something I had been wanting to see since the first film. So, they do get kudos for this.

Overall, not a horrible film. There is enough for most of you to enjoy it, I was simply disappointed by the total waste of potential.