Oh boy. [WARNING: GEEK-OUT AHEAD!]

A Question About The Saw Movies by Karen on 2013-05-15 03:53:00 UTC Reply

So I've watched the first six of the seven Saw movies, and was thinking about them today after watching 5 and 6 again. The movies are incredibly complex. I love them for their psychological manipulation of the characters and viewers. There's gore, yes, and I often close my eyes or look away when that happens. When I watch the Saw movies, I watch them for the way the story plays out, for how complex the stories are.

And I would like to ask. Out of everyone on the Board who has seen the Saw movies, even just one, what did you think of it? Do you not the movies, and why?

Oh boy. [WARNING: GEEK-OUT AHEAD!] by Herr Wozzeck on 2013-05-15 21:54:00 UTC Reply

Two of my DIC missions were in the Saw continuum. Yeah, I watched all seven movies just about back to back, to the point where I saw Saw VII in theaters. So my thoughts?

Well, let's get started!

[SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!]

Saw: This is a horror classic. Great tension, compelling story, and the twists were awesome and unexpected. So yeah, love this movie.

Saw II: A pretty good follow-up. Not as good as the first one, but still quite cool in its own right. Loved the twists that it took, too.

Saw III: Not a bad movie, but not great. Personally, I think this one suffered the most from executive meddling, as I would've liked it better if they had gone with the original ideas that the writers had gone with--which would've been a major deconstruction of Jigsaw. But of course, since Lionsgate wanted sequels... Still, the movie we got isn't that bad, so I don't complain too much.

Saw IV: This is where it started getting a bit too torture-porny for me, and it started going downhill from here. The twist at the end was kinda dumb, honestly, and came too out of nowhere in a way that just didn't work at all. It's not really a good movie, so I wouldn't watch it again. Also, it's got my least favorite trap in the franchise. Hey, Tapp, here's a suggestion: CUT HER ...ING HAIR WITH SOMETHING!

Saw V: It sucks. Hard. In my opinion, this is the worst movie in the entire franchise. Unfortunately, I think a big problem is that it has the unenviable task of having to cover up Saw IV's plotholes. I wouldn't have minded so much, except that the other main part of the movie was basically a poorly executed rehash of Saw II, with the most unlikable characters of the whole franchise.

Saw VI: The only Saw movie after III that is worth watching in any capacity. Seriously, this one is actually quite good. It also helps that it contains my favorite trap of the whole franchise: the carousel trap, which embodies everything Jigsaw is about.

Saw VII: The only reason to see this movie is for all the callbacks to the first movie that occur within the last ten minutes of the whole thing (and because Cary Elwes is a freaking god). Otherwise, it's a mess. The traps are kinda cool, but they're a little on the torture porny side, and it doesn't help that one of the franchise's most horrifying deaths is reserved for a character who is COMPLETELY INNOCENT. (Granted, it's a Hoffman trap, but still!) And the complexity of the canon gets so out of hand that the denoumont doesn't really add up. Still, the last ten minutes make it a pretty good conclusion, so I can't complain.

So yeah...

This is exactly what I wanted. by Karen on 2013-05-16 00:21:00 UTC Reply

It seems we agree on quite a lot when it comes to Saw. I wouldn't consider Saw V the worse movie of the bunch - I did enjoy seeing Hoffman's transformation into what he is, though admittedly it was lacking in some areas and him killing Seth Baxter like a Jigsaw game feels like it came out of the blue for him - but yeah, after III the series just declined. :/ Kramer should have had more screentime, even if he was dead, and it couldn't have hurt to expand more on Amanda's past and role as John's apprentice.

Then Hoffman. He might possibly be my favorite character, and CostasMandylorhasgreatlipsshutup. But seriously, I'm intrigued by how he went from (apparently) a guy who loves his sister and was a cop to a guy who kills cops just to get a chance at killing Jill. The series might have been better for me if there was more "let's see how the characters turned into what they are" and "let's see how the victims deal with the traps and how it affects them psychologically" instead of, in 3 and after, "let's toss out a bunch of blood and gore and roll in moolah!" Seriously. Saw wasn't gory. There was gore, yeah, but the movie itself was really psychological in nature, with Lawrence and Adam working on what they were going to do to get out and trying to save themselves while not killing the other.

I think what I'm getting at here is that the Saw franchise was, pretty much, okay in my book. It just should have stayed true to the first movie's atmosphere and such, focused more on the characters and less on the blood and gore.

Also. Link me to those missions pwease? :33

DIC Saw missions inbound by Outhra on 2013-05-16 01:54:00 UTC Reply

Florestan and Eusabius are fun. Herr Wozzeck's working on another mission(not a Saw mission, though, in case you were thinking that) with them, which I got to help beta. That was really fun, too. I really need to check back on the new revised version...

Anyway:

Playing Pointless Games (A My Little Pony/Saw DIC Mission)

Rivalry Counseling With Jigsaw (A Saw/Harry Potter DIC Mission)