Review: Saw II (2005)

Saw II

IMDB rate: 6,5

Genre: Torture, Survival, Serial Killer

Finally got around watching Saw II. It's definitely a lot less good than the first Saw movie, but still not as bad as the movies that I still need to watch. 

The first time I saw this movie I thought it wasn't that bad, but after there were released so many sequels it somehow had an effect to the original movie and Saw II. I don't know why but knowing that Dr. Gordon comes back in Saw 7 (?) is a bit a bummer. Anyway, I should be talking about the sequel so that's what I will start doing. This movie isn't that bad but I certainly don't enjoy it as much anymore as I did the first time. The story is reasonable, some parts don't really fit but that's forgivable. Most of the acting is good and the camerawork is great. The violence is a bit overdone, and a few of the actors are annoying as hell, but for a Saw movie, it's just a reasonable movie.

When detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is called to a crime scene of a victim of Jigsaw, he finds a lead to the place where he is hidden. Once there, he realizes that Jigsaw trapped his son Daniel Matthews with three woman and four men in a shelter, and they are inhaling a lethal nerve gas. If they do not use an antidote within two hours, they will die. Eric follows with increasing desperation the death of each member of the group in monitors, while trying to convince Jigsaw to release his son.

As I already said, some of the actors were quite annoying. Like Xavier, he was the 'badass' of the prisoners and is constantly trying to prove his toughness. In the beginning it was understandable but after a while his role became really annoying. Also, why did he need to kill Jonas? He only needed the number on the back of his head, so why not tell and ask him to turn around? No he will just smash his head in because he's just that badass. 

Also, did nobody notice that everybody is getting weaker and keep on coughing except Amanda? It was quite obvious that she was perfectly fine, even after she was thrown in the hole with needles she only bled a bit, but that's all. Also, she seems to be the only one that finds clues, and figures everything out. It was quite obvious that she was part of Jigsaw's plan.

The torturing is becoming a bigger part in this movie. Not as bad yet as in the next coming Saw movies, but still a bit more than the first Saw movie.

It's a bit weird because it's said that Jigsaw gives them a chance but if there are two antidotes in an oven and by getting the second one the oven is set on fire it's a bit weird, since they don't have a chance to get out in that case. He will burn to death and nobody else is getting better because of that. Or like what's shown in the picture above, even if she didn't mess the antidote up, she would never have a chance to get out of that device without bleeding to death, so she never had a chance anyway. I also noticed this in the first movie, Amanda needed to kill the other person so she could get out, so that was her chance, but what about the life of the other person? Why didn't he get a chance? It's all a bit vague, but perhaps I will find out in one of the sequels ;) (I don't think so). 

The thing I liked about this movie was when they arrived at the bathroom. It was kinda cool that they returned back there, with a sawn off foot and a dead Adam. I also liked it that you heard samples of the previous movie while they showed things in the bathroom. It was a short flashback and it gave a cool effect. Another cool scene was when Eric Matthews arrived at the house and they switched back and forth between the 'group' but in a way that you couldn't tell if it was at the same moment or not.

I was a bit sad to find out that now Eric Matthews is locked up in the bathroom. This way it can go on forever of course. Well, it will go on forever but from what I can remember they won't show the bathroom anymore, but I'm not sure about that so I'll have to find out in these weeks ;). At this point I don't know yet. I do know that not much of this movie fits together. Why did nobody look for Adam, Detective David Tapp or Dr. Gordon? I can't imagine it would take that long to find the place. At least, if you look at Adam in this movie, it seems like it has been a while. There are so many things that I wonder about, and I can look around to find the answer but I'm still hoping to find all the answers eventually when I've seen all the Saw movies. 

All together, this movie isn't too bad compared to the sequels, but it's still not good. The story does not fit together and some of the actors were not that good, but there were also good things in this movie like when the camera switched between Eric Matthews and Xavier, Daniel and Amanda. I'm not sure if I can recommend it, since my thought about it are a bit mixed. Anyway, it full of blood but this movie is not as bad as the sequels yet. This movie is not all about torturing yet, so I guess it's watchable.

My personal rate: 5,5