Jigsaw Review

 

Saw fans the newest film in the Saw film franchise Spiral AKA Spiral: From The Book Of Saw is due to finally be released this Friday in theatres. As such I felt that it was only right that I produce a tie in review however instead of reviewing any of the Saw films that I already own on DVD I thought that i'd take a look at the only Saw film that I don't own on DVD and as well as being the one and only Saw film that i've only seen the once and so join me as I review the 2017 Saw film that is called simply "Jigsaw" enjoy.

The plot of this film is ten years after the death of John Kramer a new game has been started and it's up to Detective Halloran to find out who is behind this new game and stop it before all of the people that are taking part in the game end up dead. In terms of what I thought about the plot of this film in all honesty the plot of this film was the typical Saw plot with nothing new , added or thrown in which might have worked for the earlier Saw sequels but for the eighth film in the Saw film franchise the plot of this film really did need to add something new to make it stand out from all of the other Saw films which in opinion at least it sadly doesn't do that.

Starring in this film is Matt Passmore as Logan Nelson , the only returning Saw film franchise actor Tobin Bell as John Kramer / Jigsaw and Callum Keith Rennie as Detective Halloran. Also starring in this film is Clé Bennett as Detective Keith Hunt , Hannah Emily Anderson as Eleanor Bonneville , Laura Vandervoort as Anna , Paul Braunstein as Ryan , Mandela Van Peebles as Mitch , Brittany Allen as Carly and Josiah Black as Edgar Munsen.

In terms of what I personally thought about the acting that's featured / presented us in this very film in all honesty the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film is about on par with the acting that's in all of the other Saw films. Which isn't a bad thing at all since it's a sign of consistency but the acting in the other Saw films wasn't good either and heck the only good actor in all of the Saw films is Tobin Bell who is once again on top form as John Kramer / Jigsaw.

This film is alot like the first Saw film in that the focus of the film isn't the gore but rather the mystery which is indeed a good thing or at least it would be if the mystery wasn't so obvious. Since the mystery behind this film is is John Kramer alive which anyone who has seen the Saw films knows that he's dead and so the mystery isn't that good because all it takes for the mystery to fall apart is for one person just to remember that John Kramer is dead. 

This film just straight up forgets that both Amanda and Detective Mark Hoffman even existed since neither character is either shown nor is either character even mentioned in any of this films many flashback sequences. I can kind of see why the makers if this film chose not to mention Detective Hoffman since the character isn't that popular among Saw fans but Amanda is popular with Saw fans and straight up forgetting about both characters shows that the makers of this film do not / don't respect the lore of the Saw franchise or the saw film franchise as a whole.

This film just confuses the entire Saw timeline because apparently John Kramer / Jigsaw had a secret apprentice before both Amanda and Detective Hoffman which honestly makes you wonder where this apprentice was during the events of the first seven Saw films. It also makes you wonder why the heck John Kramer /Jigsaw chose not to mention this secret apprentice to both Amanda or Detective Hoffman since this apprentice could have been very useful to them and even more useful to them when Detective Hoffman took over the mantle as Jigsaw.  

I will give this film this it's plot twist is one that I honestly didn't see coming and the same goes for the reveal that the character of Logan Nelson was a secret apprentice to John Kramer's / Jigsaw's. Both twists I personally thought were very well done but at the same time there should have been some hints at least for the Logan Nelson reveal just because it is such a huge plot point in the film and having at least some clues in this film would have allowed us the audience to work out what's going on at the same time that the characters are working out what's going on as well.

This film has a total running time of one hour and thirty one minuets fifty seven seconds so let's round that up to one hour and thirty two minuets. Which I felt was honestly the right amount of time for this film since this film doesn't have enough story to reach / cover anything that's even close to two hours and with this short running time every single scene in this film has to be about pushing the plot forward and as well being about advancing the characters forward and that means that this film in my opinion at least has some really good pacing since no scene lasts any longer then it honestly needs to.

Now then boys girls as any saw fan will tell you the true stars of the Saw films are the traps and the same is indeed true for this film and that means that I have to talk about the traps that are featured / presented to us in this film and if i'm being really honest here boys and girls the traps that are featured / presented to us in this film are a bit of let down for me personally. Since while the traps that are in this film are indeed creative there's none that really scared me which is what a good Saw trap should do in my opinion and the traps that are in this film just don't really stand out for me personally like the first trap with the buckets that just looks bland and uninteresting which is something that a Saw trap really shouldn't be.

Overall the best word that I can use to describe this film is average since everything about this film just screams average to me which is such a shame because this film out of all of the many Saw sequels this Saw film had the chance to be on par with the original Saw film instead this film ends up as perhaps the worst Saw sequel. Since even the bad Saw sequels at least have visually interesting and this film doesn't even have that going for it. Now then boys and girls since i've talked about both of the good and many of the bad things that are in this film in this review that means that this film gets a 5 out of 10 from me personally.

As for where I got all of the images that I used in this very review well then boys and girls I got all of the images that I personally used in this review from either the official Saw fandom wiki page or from Google Images. With my preferred website to use to get images from this review being the Saw fandom wiki page simply because alot of the images that are on the official Saw fandom wiki page are pretty high definition as well as being pretty high quality.