At this point 8 entries into the 'Saw' franchise Im pretty much convinced that the world that exists in this universe is basically made up of 'People who end up in traps built by John Kramer' and 'People who work for John Kramer' and thats about it.
'Jigsaw' see's us FINALLY after 7 movies set across a 6-8 month window in 2004, jump ahead in time to *approx* 2014/2015. The baggage is dropped, Hoffman? Amanda? Dr. Gordon!? Who!? yeh forget about them, they're gone. and like opening a window, the fresh air of a new plotline smells so much sweeter as it clears away the stench of a fart ridden and musty room of a plot that had more than outstayed its welcome.
A clean break, its 2014/15, John Kramer, Jigsaw and all that other stuff is a distant memory, nothings happened for 10 years and the world is starting to move on...Only suddenly a man appears on a rooftop of a building, holding a detinator and ranting that 5 people will die unless he makes an urgent decision. Holding a detinator, he clicks the trigger and sets in motion a new game. With 5 unlucky participants who all have sins to confess. The cops are put back out on the trail to find the 'Jigsaw' killer, but with John Kramer having died 10 years prior, who is commiting the killings? It couldnt possibly be John...or could it!?
And, honestly, this isnt a 'good' movie, but I enjoyed it. Its the cinematic equivilent of a dirty DIRTY hamburger and fries. Its not good for me. but after having sat through 7 movies that felt like unseasoned fries, to get a bit of flavour here was very satisfying.
The script isnt *that* different from previous 'Saw' films, but by finally severing itself from the previous entries, it allows the story to grow and develop in its own way that feels natural to this universe, while also not straying *too* far as to become alien.
It's a zippy 92 minute production that has enough going on to keep the brain ticking over, but not so much that it becomes confusing. The traps are relatively well made and executed well, though some of the 'twists' around how the trap should have REALLY been done, vs. How our survivors tried to solve them were a little bit farfetched.
Equally; the pool of victims 'Jigsaw' pulled from this time around was a little shallow, an example being 'someone stole a purse that only had $3.15 in cash in it, but stealing the purse led to the lady it was stole from having a heart attack'...it really isnt worth the death she had here...
I like that this leans *slightly* into humourous terratory, not so much that i'd class it as anywhere near comedy. But just enough to add a little contrast to the utter bleakness of these movies. It was a field that Saw 6 and 7 dabbled a little bit in, but here I feel they get the tonal mix just about right.
The characters are a bit problematic for me, they're kind of 'one note' across the runtime, and pretty much always pick the absolute worst options when it comes to trying to solve the puzzles or trying to save their cohorts. I can forgive a little short sightedness when faces with a stress inducing situation, I cant forgive character who'll willingly throw themselves into a meat pulverizer while screaming 'I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO!?!'
I enjoyed the twists and turns in this one, and while the final resolution was a *bit* of a stretch and in many ways was actually kind of annoying. The journey to get to that point was entertaining, engaging and most importantly, fun. How much value this story will have on a rewatch? I cant honestly say. Probably not a lot for me personally as, once a mysteries been solved, you kind of get 1 more rewatch to see all the elements you missed the first time, and then after that...well, you know everything that happens.
Time has been kind to the franchise with this one, the 7 year gap between 'Saw 3D' and this film has led to a new take on the direction, we have a very nicely put together studio flick that has decent lighting (no overly dark shots with block colour correction to be found here!) solid blocking and clear communication to the cast and crew about what was required.
If I had to be nitpicky, i'd argue that some of the CGI (particularly the fake blood) is pretty poor quality and left a lot to be desired. But; with that being said, I dont know whether to lay that down at the feet of the producers, the directors, the editors, or all of the above. I feel had they stuck with practical blood and gore effects, this probably would have looked a lot better.
The cine here is delightful. For the most part we ACTUALLY have a 'Saw' film that isnt afraid of using colour! and the curse of having to block colour correct all your footage to 'Urine yellow' or 'electric blue' because your entire film is based around the events of 2 movies 10 years ago that had a strong aestethic is lifted! Here? we have rich sumptuous colours reds, greens, oranges and blues all nicely saturated and working effectively!
There are a couple of scenes later on in the movie that do slide back into that 'yellowey'/'orangey' block colouration, but at least here, they bother to do specific grading rather than block grading (meaning the backgrounds get a solid dose of yellow/orange/Blue, but the foreground stuff gets a seperate grade to help them really stand out)
Composition is really solid here, If I had to complain though, there are moments where a bit more B-roll would have been nicer to help break up the flow of the sequences a bit more. but on the whole, this is just kind of a nicely shot, but not astounding body of work that does what it needs to do and then moves on.
The edit is also something im quite happy about, sequences have great timing, are paced well and largely only take up the time they need. they've massively reduced the number of seizure inducing flash edits that used to strike through these movies whenever a trap started. The only grumble I have really is a mild one, and that's that some of the trap sequences get a little messy on arrangement. I think they were trying to make things feel intense, but at least a couple of times I was actually left just thinking 'what am I supposed to be looking at?'
I cant really talk about the performances in detail because...Spoilers. But what I will say is our cast are pretty rock solid, they have great physicality and animation, they use the set space and props well, and in the 3rd act when some of the bigger twists happen it just keeps getting better quite honestly!
I also kind of dug the soundtrack here, its a bit different from previous entries, but does feel similar enough to not *completely* change the tone of things. It only added to the freshness of it all.
Honestly? 'Jigsaw' isnt perfect. If your really into the 'Saw' films you'll probably be annoyed at the fact that the plot holes from the last movie (And other movies)have been completely airlocked. If your into your suspense thrillers, you'll probably be SUPER annoyed by the ending of this film. And if you were really getting into the more 'Slasher' heavy vibes that the last couple of films were dabbling with, you'll be annoyed they've reigned that back in.
But personally? Non of the above mattered that much to me. 'Jigsaw' is probably the first film since Part 2 that I could pretty reasonably see myself putting on again as part of a Halloween marathon, or just if I wanted 'Saw' vibes. It's 'clean break' attitude means I dont have to remember 7 films worth of lore and deleted scenes to just spend 92 minutes watching a dozen or so people get brutally gored to death.
It has a flawed, but nontheless entertaining script, decent direction and cine, the cast are fun to be around, it sounds solid. I dont have any issue with 'Jigsaw' honestly. I'd say if you've seen the first few 'Saw' movies but kind of got fed up with them feeling 'Samey' to maybe give this one a go. i'd say if you were coming into the 'Saw' franchise with fresh eyes, watch 1 and 2, then jump to this one.
Let me put it this way, outside of 'Saw 2' this is the first one i've watched where i've googled how much the bluray is while the credits rolled. So it must have been doing something right.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/jigsaw-2017/
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