Saw Marathon • 2nd Viewing • Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Jigsaw and Company: taking your scavenger hunt adventure to the next level since 2007.
So Saw II was annoying, Saw III was absurd, and Saw IV was… also absurd! The editing may have reached a new peak of excessive reliance, but thank goodness they at least are still putting that excessiveness to good use with their twists! Not only is Saw IV faster paced than its predecessor due to its concurring scavenger hunt as I mentioned before, but it somehow also topped the sheer insanity of its reveals too! Hoffman being the bad guy all along is pretty unsurprising, but finding out that this occurs during the same timeline as the already convoluted Saw III? HA! GOLDEN! Plus, the “you never open the door” memo that comes full circle for officer Riggs had me BALLING! THAT WAS THE STUPIDEST CONNECTIVE PIECE OF TISSUE IN THE HISTORY OF THESE VICTIMS’ LESSONS AND I ADORED IT!
Although, when it comes to Jigsaw’s backstory side-plot, it does venture a little into some Solo: A Star Wars Story territory where Jigsaw’s backstory is kind of there so you can go, “aweee, so that’s how or why he came up with that insignificant little detail. Cool?” It’s surprisingly my least favorite part about this sequel, minus again, the editing. There’s like one insightful Jigsaw quote I got out of it and then it just went back to being yawn-worthy. The movie is a bit modest up until that ending too, for better or worse, diving into some grim melodrama when it comes to Riggs being trained to see Hoffman’s point of view as Strahm also becomes driven to a point of desperation from the casualties that the hunt brings them; luckily all of that pain though is kind of reliant on these characters making idiot decisions, and hey, the more this franchise strays away from practicality as it embraces comical complexity, the better in my book. Or, maybe we really are all that dumb in hindsight? Sheesh, you got us there, Jigsaw.
Verdict: C
“Saw IV” is now available to stream on HBO Max.
Burning the Celluloid 
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