Yesterday, Jonna and I went to see Saw II. I’ve been looking forward to this one for quite a while, as I loved the first movie. The things that I liked most about it was the really original story line and that it was made on a low budget, so the story was more important than the way the movie was shot. There is something really nice about a movie that tells the story in lieu of fancy editing and special effects.

Unfortunately, Saw II does not live up to the first one, in my opinion. The fancy editing completely turned me off, and l couldn’t get past it enough to enjoy what story there was in the movie.

Donnie Wahlberg leads the cast as a detective who is drawn into the Jigsaw case after his name is left at a crime scene. He has just had an argument with his son and has been trying to get a hold of him on the phone and is unable to do so. He is asked by his ex-partner to be a part of the investigation and somehow they find Jigsaw, sitting in his room sucking on oxygen. It winds up his son is one of 7 people included in the latest “game”. The rest of the movie is a lot of over the top editing and bad acting that completely ruins the rest of the story, so much so that I have a hard time even remembering the details because I was slowly getting more and more aggravated at how the movie jumped from one place to another.

Daniel Fienberg from Zap2it.com, says this in his review:

Coupled with the distancing cop/killer face-off, the erratic pace may cause some viewers to tune out long before the twisty ending that manages to be satisfying, if not surprising.

The erratic pace is what I hated most. I disagree with the “satisfying if not surprising” ending. The ending, once you see it, is a predictable and typical set up to continue the movie franchise long after it is relevant.

As I said earlier, the thing I liked the most about the first movie was its simplicity and its focus on the story. I thought the idea of “Jigsaw” was excellent and illustrated a hunger on the writers part to do something completely different. Saw II proves that you can only do that once and then Hollywood turns it into just another erratic, hard to follow, and badly acted waste of time.

Luckily for us, Jonna had a free ticket on her Regal Crown Club Card, so I don’t feel cheated out of money – only the time I spent in the theater that I could have spent more pleasantly getting my testicles twisted. The ticket we payed for doesn’t seem to be wasted as Jonna actually liked the movie. Go figure.

You can find more reviews on Rotten Tomatoes where the current fresh rating is at a very generous 38% fresh.