Movie Review: Saw 2

Last Saturday night, with the kids safely tucked into the home of the mother-in-law, me and the Mrs. hit the multiplex to devour the latest horror flick to be released: Saw 2. And moreso, we were anxiously awaiting a follow-up to the first Saw, which is one of our favorite flicks.

Well, favorite flicks that feature a lot of blood and gore, anyway.

So the sequel was, admittedly, rushed. Lions Gate had never had a hit like this before, and so they pushed Saw 2 in development about 10 minutes after the first weekend of Saw. Of course, they didn’t actually have a script, so they borrowed one. For those who don’t know (and probably don’t care), the process is that for unexpected, rushed sequels you can take a similar script in the same genre, replace some character names and end up with a story ‘in the same vein’ as the original but without the original creators’ craftsmanship.

And worse? The script is Saw-ish, but completely without the emotions of the first. Emotions that were mocked by reviewers no less.

For example, I thought Cary Elwes did a great job in the first one. Sure he’s a little over the top, but then again he had to saw his own goddamn foot off to get out of his situation, something that a lot of people just don’t put into perspective.

Oh. Spoiler warning for those who hadn’t seen Saw. But I won’t spoil any Saw 2 goodness, for what it’s worth.

As for the sequel, I just hate that it had such a rushed feeling. I know you want to keep the pace snappy, but c’mon! I really, really tried to give a shit about the six or so ‘main’ characters in the flick. But I just don’t.

For example, one of my favorite moments from the first flick was the flashbacks to the abduction of the victims. While this was expanded quite a bit due to there being only two ‘victims’ in the first, the ability to delve into their past and give them some weight was important. This, of course, doesn’t show up for the sequel.

The sequel does what I thought was truly interesting: The killer, Jigsaw, “who never actually kills anyone” (much in the vein of a bully who uses the Stop Punching Yourself routine) sits down and talks to Donny Wahlburg’s character for a good chunk of the film. Tobin Bell, who has such a great first name me and Ericka are thinking of swiping it sometime in the future, does a fantastic job. He’s believable, he brings a lot of ‘weight’ to the role, and I hope in Saw 3 (which, after a $30 million dollar weekend, will happen) has him front and center. I had more fun watching him speak than watching the other characters die off.

Which I guess tells you a lot about the flick. I wanted to like it more than I did, but unfortunately it’s a misfire in the theater. However, my wife said it best: “That would’ve been a great rental.”

Yup, it would’ve been. And if you haven’t seen it yet, just give it a Netflixing in about 45 days. Should be showing up by then. It won’t last long in theaters, that much is certain.

Until Saw 3, I think I’ll just stick with the original.

Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline