Film Review: Saw 3 *Spoilers*

hmmm.. what can i say? Saw is one of my fave Horror movies of recent times, not just for its relentless torture and pain it can dish out but also for its 'generally' well thought out storyline and messages it portrays, but for some reason this movie fails to hit the mark.

First off, i have to say that Saw 3 really went all out in the gore stakes, from the get go with the foot breaking, to the chain pulling and the head popping, this is definetely not for the squeamish, more gorier than the first two movies combined, the gore factor hits top marks with a brain operation mid way through the movie. This is good, i love Saw for its torture for some reason, its part of its unique selling point.

The next unique selling point is the messages the traps that play out, for instance, The rack trap was perfect, the guy didn't feel he was punished enough, therefore nailed to a cross and well, bone start to break. Pretty much all the traps that Jigsaw sets out in his movies suppsoe to represent something to the person being tested or not, and Saw 3 doesn't disappoint too much, yet, it almost feels a bit shallow after watching the 3rd movie of this trilogy.

And finally, the twist, ook, there are basically two twists in this, Amanda was taking the test and not Lynn, not a big surprise really, i sort of figured something like that happened after the first 20-30 mintues when the first two traps were unwinnable. The next twist was that Jeff (the guy going through the different traps) was Lynn's husband.. err.. ok, i suppose, i wasn't shocked, surprised or anything like that, just a shrug. Two non-big twists which is disappointing comapred with the first two movies big twists of course.

The problem with this mvoie was that it 'unnecessarily' breaks the illusion of the first movie, that Amanda came and helped Jigsaw out. Though the flashbacks DO answer it without any faults and it fits in well enough, that magic with the first movie, with all of the audience thinking that Jigsaw did it all himself, is lost, a somewhat disheartening feel but im not glad that some questions were answered... and strangely enough, the third movie leads to more questions, like Jeff's captured daughter, Matthews (and Gordon's) disappearances, the letter in the envelope, the tape covered in wax, Saw 3 manages to create more questions, which could lead to a Saw 4 (that has been planned apparently) sorting out what is missing because for me, Saw 3 manages to be a shadow of the first two movies, it still has that charm but its attempt at trying to be as clever as the first two is lost and thus, being not as good as the first two and not being a good movie in general unfortunately.

Overall, impressive gore status, coupled with similar settings plus answering questions while asking more of its own doesn't make this Saw 3 worthy as a Saw movie, it loses out on cleverness, unpredictability or even excitement (dragged on too long). Sorry, Saw trilogy

5/10
grade: D+