Azrael Montoya
The game is back on with force with the return of John “Jigsaw” Kramer in “Jigsaw.”
The film opens up in true Saw series form with five people locked in an unknown room with buckets on their heads. As all true fans of the Saw series know, all five people are locked there for a reason, as Jigsaw’s game is never meant for those people with no sins in their life.
Detective Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and Keith Hunt (Clé Bennet) of the FBI, along with forensic pathologists Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore) and Eleanor Bonneville (Hannah Emily Anderson), are presumably chasing a new Jigsaw copycat killer.
Audiences saw Kramer die in a hospital bed in “Saw III.” Now, however, bodies are confusingly showing up all over the city, leaving the detectives in a quandary.
Back in the mysterious room one of the five people with a bucket on his head never wakes up and presumably dies.
Kramer was diagnosed with cancer earlier in the series and has been dead for years now. Despite all this Halloran and Hunt are still on the case. It is revealed that Eleanor Bonneville is an obsessive fan girl of the Jigsaw killer and has been following him in the media since his crimes started.
Nelson lost his wife sometime ago and is an Iraq War veteran. The Spierig brothers make great directorial magic out of this fact. Logan was also tortured and broken while in Iraq.
Jigsaw, with great methodology, takes his apprentices and remakes them in his own image so they can appreciate the life they were given. In a sense they are reborn again.
He takes the most hardened of criminals and reshapes their lives. He’s done it before with Detective Mark Hoffman and Amanda in the second film.
As with the previous films in the series there is a great twist at the end of “Jigsaw.”
While the film becomes repetitive with the gore and traps in some areas, it is still thoroughly engaging.
Matt Passmore as Nelson really came into his part and was an immensely invested emotional character.
One of the things on the visual side that the Spierig brothers rectified with this film was that they got rid of the quick editing cuts that were in previous Saw sequels.
When a person is watching this film they will notice that the visuals are cleaner and that it actually feels like a film with solid colors and angles. It was beautifully shot.
One of the things about the series I’ve always enjoyed is the redemptive aspect present in the films. “Jigsaw” makes great material out of that idea of past sins.
I view Kramer as the final judge because let’s face it, the man is facing death in his own life.
“Jigsaw” is a nice revitalization and return for the franchise. The game is back on and in this game there are ALWAYS winners and losers.
Cast: A
Script: B+
Cinematography: A+
Soundtrack: B
Overall: B+
