The final Saw

SAW 3D
aka SAW VII: THE FINAL CHAPTER

*1/2

Starring Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Sean Patrick Flanery, Tobin Bell, Chad Donella, Dean Armstrong, Gina Holden and Cary Elwes.
Directed by Kevin Greutert.

If you've seen the first six, you've seen the seventh. There's no real underlying mystery anymore, no hidden meaning, no fake-outs. Where the first one had a great surprise ending, each subsequent movie has been less successful in conveying the same final punch.

This was the same movie as Saw VI. One guy has to go through a series of rooms, given tasks he must complete or someone he knows will die in one of those contraptions. Most of the time he barely fails. Meanwhile Hoffman, who has twisted Jigsaw's mission far beyond what it originally was supposed to be, is keeping just ahead of the cops as he tried to hunt down Jill, Jigsaw's widow who almost killed him at the end of Saw VI.

The last few minutes has this wrap-up where yeah, it feels like the end, but it felt more like another episode where they threw a better conclusion on there to make it the real end.

The 3D didn’t hurt or enhance. Most of the time I forgot it was in 3D until a limb or a weapon came flying at the screen.

I appreciated Cary Elwes’s cameo to make it full circle, but it also made me realize how much weight he’s put on recently.