The gore in this movie is exquisite. The scenes of violence and torture and depravity are stunning to watch and they made me flinch. Anyone who tunes in to see the intricate traps Jigsaw sets to teach his victims a lesson won't be disappointed.

Anyone who tunes in to see an intricate plot woven together and tied up at the end, however, WILL be disappointed. Remember the first three movies? How things would happen and wouldn't make sense and then as time went on things tied together more and more until there was a montage at the end with flashes showing clips from the movie with voice overs repeating dialogue we heard framed in such a way that we finally understood what really happened and the pieces finally fit? Well prepare to have the same setup, same premise, same flashy clips at the end, and to sit there saying "Um...this doesn't make any fucking sense." Filmmakers take note: Just because you "explain" everything at the end doesn't mean your movie makes actual sense. For the pieces to fit together there can't be millions of inconsistencies and holes and things that don't add up.

I was impressed with the first three movies because whatever other problems I may have had with them, they tied together in the end, even with all the intricate pieces (that just got more and more complex as the story went on) they fit. Part 4 doesn't. And it's sad, because it's not in on the joke, it plugs along like a good little movie, never realizing that it doesn't add up like the other installments. These movies feel like college level logic puzzles most of the time anyway since the plot thickened more and more with each installment until it became almost impossible to keep everything straight without drawing a fucking diagram to keep track of all the characters and who the hell they were. Each installment gets worse with so many characters and intertwining plotlines, and this movie is the worst of the bunch.

Not only do we have six or seven main characters all vying for attention here, we wander through a plot hedge maze not ever entirely sure if we're adding everything up correctly, and then at the end it's not even worth it because the movie is asking us to believe things that don't even make any sense. To put it simply, it's impossible for the ending to have worked out the way it did barring extensive amounts of shit we were never told, and I expect future installments to jump in and clear that up for me, but I shouldn't have to see every installment in a series in order to understand what the hell is going on; I shouldn't have to wait for next October for Saw 5 to explain to me how all these plot holes can be filled (and then that movie will have plot holes of its own that will only be cleared up with Saw 6, and so on and on until the end of eternity).
 

This isn't "The Lord of the Rings" for God's sake, and even those movies stood as separate films that didn't have glaring holes that made you say "wait, that couldn't possibly happen because this character did this and this and this..." I should stop being so vague here. I could lay everything out for you but I won't spoil the movie (even though it's not worth your money to go see it and you should definitely wait to rent it, I'm still not going to give away the end) but I can outline a few problems. First of all, the only reason the plot works at all is because every victim in this movie is a complete moron. At least in the other installments not everyone was an idiot (well, that's how I felt about the first one, that the movie would have been 20 minutes long if the cops hadn't been brain dead, but parts 2 and 3 did a better job of cutting down on the bonehead moves) but in this movie, everyone does the stupidest thing they could possibly do in every situation.

I mean it, think of the one thing a real human being would NEVER do, ever, no matter how desperate or scared they were, and then watch these characters do exactly that thing time after time. It gets old when the convenient little plot only works because every character in it is a complete idiot. For instance, if your mouth was sewn shut and you were attached by a chain to a guy whose eyes were sewn shut and thus you could see what you had to do to survive and he couldn't, but you couldn't speak, and there was a knife lying RIGHT FUCKING THERE next to you, would you: a) use the blade to cut the fucking thread and tell the guy what you needed to do to survive, or : b) stand there like a moron doing nothing, then get into a fight with the guy, kill him, and then STILL not use the blade but instead rip your mouth open and scream and cry? Yeah, option B makes for a much better gore shot, but gore shots do not a good movie make.

I love gore shots, I cheered at the gore set pieces in this movie and the gore was the only thing I liked about the movie, but I can go through my collection and watch some gory movies that don't insult my intelligence as they feed me a line of bullshit, so why would I choose to watch this movie? There's nothing to attract me to it. No one in this movie can act. I mean that. One of the leads upon whose shoulders a lot of the movie rests is so BAD at his line delivery that I was grateful that he was unable to speak for most of the movie due to circumstances I can't reveal. His silence gave me a respite from wanting to gouge my ears out, but there was still plenty to hate in the movie even without him. The interrogation scenes leave much to be desired and look like they come from a bad TV cop drama with melodramatic dialogue and cops badgering witnesses who speak in riddles and never ask to talk to an attorney because they're idiots, and it's all anti-climactic in the end because when the interrogation finally gets to the point the cop asks a question he should have asked five hours ago and everything would have been cleared up a lot faster. In fact the entire movie wouldn't have happened if some of the characters hadn't made such dumbass moves, and that irritates me.

I know that people can be stupid, but eventually you need to do something to draw us into the movie, you can't keep layering a plot that only works because everyone in it but the killer is dumb, people won't keep tuning in to see these movies just because there's going to be a twist at the end, people lose interest in a "twist" if they end up not giving a shit about everything that came before it. The premise of the Saw movies could have made for endless sequels as long as the filmmakers carefully diagrammed out their plots and made sure the loose ends were tied up, even if they only APPEAR to be tied up until we're enlightened by further revelations in future installments. Leaving tons of loose ends throughout your movie because you know people will pay to see it even if you don't bother to put actual effort into it is lame. I'm sure this movie will make money, but I hope its sales taper off as soon as people realize that this installment is bereft of anything resembling intelligent dialogue and twists and characterization. Save your money and re-watch the first three instead.

Wait to rent when the DVD is in the dollar rental bin. Or better yet, wait until someone on Youtube splices together just the death scenes and watch that instead, then you won't have to bother with the rest of the movie. Trust me, it's a waste of your time.

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