An average movie

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of this franchise but since all the instalments were made available by my TV provider, I thought I might as well check them out. Well, this sequel was probably the laziest I have seen so far. Basically, the dilemma faced by the makers was that John Kramer A.K.A Jigsaw had been terminally ill from the very beginning and, by this point, well, the guy was dead so how could they continue this tale without him? One option was to have his sidekick Mark Hoffman continue his work but the character and the actor playing this character were just so uncharismatic, it would have never worked. Eventually, the solution they found was to spend half of the duration showing some flashbacks scenes from the previous movies so, this way, they still managed to keep Jigsaw involved somehow. I have to admit that I do appreciate the links between all the movies, it makes it quite rewarding if you invest yourself in this franchise. However, to have them regurgitate some old scenes from the previous movies, albeit from a different point of view, was such a cheap-ass move though. Of course, this way, you do get an explanation on how Hoffman got involved in Kramer’s demented quest but it didn’t change the fact that this character remained pretty lame though. There was also a major plot-hole. I mean, sure, Jigsaw had nothing else to do then spending the whole day building up his little ‘games’ but, on the other hand, Hoffman did have a full-time job so how did he manage to be on the side a mastermind serial-killer with some vastly convoluted death games? He didn’t sleep at night maybe? By the way, I’m giving Hoffman a lot of sh*t but, to be honest, except for Jigsaw, the other characters not only in this movie but also in this franchise in general, were all weak and uninteresting (the fact that they almost all get killed off at some point is not an excuse). Anyway, to conclude, at least, I have to admit that it wasn’t a step down from the previous instalment but it wasn't a step up either and, therefore, I don’t think it is really worth a look.