Chad Donella stars as Gibson in Saw 3D (2010)
Saw 3D Review
The ads for SAW 3D depicting Jigsaw as a giant construction project are more accurate than the marketers probably know. The latest and, supposedly, last of this by now exhausted franchise is as mechanical as they come, and a big comedown from the unexpectedly decent previous entry.
SAW VI managed to inject some fresh urgency and character quirks into the formula, but SAW 3D is as grindingly impersonal as the assorted torture devices it spotlights. By now, any tangible attempt to engage us with intriguing characters and a sense of mystery is gone; all that's left is a series of death setpieces strung together with half-assed plotting and weak acting, “enhanced” by the addition of 3-D. The dimensional process used here is OK and provides a bit of atmospheric depth to certain sequences, though it has mostly been employed to spew guts and other body parts into the audience's face…read more [Fangoria]
And you can't fool me with your fancy new outfit either. 3-D goes with a Saw movie about as well as peanut butter goes with cheese, and I think you know it, but you just had to go out and get all three-dimensionally glitzy just like all your big-budget friends, and you come off as pretty ridiculous. It's like I don't even know you anymore. Every conversation is rote; every kill scene is predictably vicious; every trap is head-slappingly silly. You over-explain things that fans already know and newcomers don't care about; you linger on the ugly whereas your earlier kills focused on both the ugly and the suspenseful; you feel more like a vague remake of yourself than a sequel. And that gets old real fast…read more [Fearnet]
Cinema's premier torture-porn franchise at long last comes to a grisly end with “Saw 3D,” its seventh and possibly most meritless entry. And that's saying something.
There's no point in recapping the fake-outs and dunderheaded gotchas that make up the series' mythology except to explain that inspirational murderer Jigsaw's top student, Lt. Hoffman ( Costas Mandylor), and foxy widow, Jill ( Betsy Russell), had a spat at the end of “Saw VI.” The new film simultaneously follows Hoffman's quest to break Jill's crown and some hapless jerk's bumpy ride through yet another thicket of yawn-inducingly elaborate traps. Let's just say the omnipotent Jigsaw (or his cheeky protégé), wizard of set decoration and metallurgy, successfully defends his title as World's Meanest Machinist…read more [LA Times]
Saw VI should have been Saw 3D. That way, at least the franchise that started out as a claustrophobic and derivative, but gory and occasionally entertaining mix of Se7en and Cube, could have ended on a relative high note. As it is, Saw 3D has precious few new ideas to add to the franchise; and it's a lackluster drop down from its immediate predecessor, which managed to work in some poignant political commentary to the drillings, hackings, meltings and general dismemberment. The traps, which were supposed to “come alive” in 3D, didn't, and most of them lacked the flair of their forebears.
The A-story of the continuing adventures of Det. Hoffman, Jigsaw's hand-picked successor, was actually the most straightforward it had ever been. This is because the flashbacks, which had been so prevalent in the recent films, were at a minimum this time out. However, that meant that Jigsaw, who had managed to live on via flashback in the last three films, is reduced to merely a cameo. It also meant that Hoffman had to carry the whole shebang on his own, and Costas Mandylor and his one single expression aren't quite up to it…read more [CHUD]
Saw is my favorite horror movie of all time. While I've never been big on the sequels, when I heard Cary Elwes would be returning as Dr. Gordon in this installment, I knew I had to see Saw 3D. It's definitely nowhere near as good as the original Saw movie, and a lot more predictable, but the 3D made this installment a unique experience.
First of all, the 3D is pretty well done in this movie. It led to the movie being more horrifying in a sense of how gory it was. Body parts and guts are often being flung at you, and sometimes weapons are, too. I also enjoy the callbacks to all the previous Saw movies. Almost all the traps make a return, as do survivors. There's also a game being played where the last Jigsaw wants revenge on Jill for trying to kill him, and is very willing to play everyone to get his way…read more [BSCReview]
Wow — is Saw 3D ever lame. The acting is lame. The special effects are lame. The ticket price-upping visual stunt is lame. It's all just so…you get the point. Nothing here works. It's a waste of time for everyone involved, the first film in the franchise that actually feels like it's intentionally cheating the fans. In the past, the preposterous storylines at least tried to tie everything together, making events and people we've seen in other installments relevant to the realities at hand. Here, it's all junk, random rewrites of the previous mythology that make no sense whatsoever. Even Cary Elwes from the original turns up to play a combination of red herring and obvious suspect…read more [Filmcritic]
Seven years, seven movies. If Lionsgate's marketing campaign is to be trusted, “Saw VII” has been set up as the final chapter in the blood-drenched-but-worn-dry horror series (if the empty multiplex auditorium I saw the film in the Thursday night before its official Friday release is any indication, it just might be). As such, it makes the ultimate case for why the franchise should have ended after 2006's “Saw III,” easily the tightest and craftiest of all the entries as it satisfyingly tied up the various plot threads and killed resident villain John Kramer/Jigsaw Killer. Where there was money to still be made, there were further sequels to be thrown together, with 2007's “Saw IV” and 2008's “Saw V” especially lame, convoluted and amateurish. In death, John Kramer returned time and time again in flashback sequences as the tacked-on continuation of the story seemingly was pulled from the asses of screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan…read more [Worstpreviews]
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