Saw II

In a way, Saw II is a pleasant surprise. The screenwriters managed to get rid of the holes in the logic in the first film, although it is true that they did leave a few of them in. In many ways, the filmmakers also managed to get away from the overly uneven parts, where one depicting the action in the room was excellent, with the others taking place elsewhere and the flashbacks being dull and grey. They manage to keep the atmosphere fairly balanced, though admittedly the whole thing is built more or less on a largely uncovered depiction of the functionality of the various tasks Jigsaw hands out to his victims. It is true that their originality is at times unpleasantly chilling, and some of them (the hole full of syringes) even made my stomach turn. Even so, Saw II is just a template thriller that has a relatively decent number of ideas and a decently dark atmosphere. On the other hand, it is also true that the hyperactive camera and clippy editing surprisingly take away from it a bit. A (non)standard above average film. (04/11/2006)

The film has excellent gore and really makes you feel the pain. That's the end of the plus side, and all we have is a bunch of unsympathetic meat to the slaughter, which is perversely unbelievably moronic in every way and also can't even act. The first installment gets full marks for its quality contribution to the genre despite a ridiculous budget. The next installments will be nothing but calculating, reputation-raping, but the truth is that for all their filth I will watch them. Oh, and the sped-up editing sequence sux. (02/25/2006)

The first part is an easily forgettable mix of violence and directorial invention. The sequel is similar in that regard, but it also lacks originality and creativity compared to its predecessor. What remains are only brutal acts of murder in all possible and impossible ways, somewhat decent acting performances, and a surprising (which does not necessarily mean very good) conclusion. As a positive aspect, I consider the inclusion of the main villain into the story and the many new intricately designed traps. On the negative side, it follows the exact same narrative structure as the first part, which makes Saw 2 essentially a copy, unfortunately. Not really worth watching – simply once and that's it. (07/05/2006)

"Saw II" is a slight decline in quality compared to the first, almost brilliant film, but there's nothing that can be done about it. It relies heavily on trying to appear gritty, some characters are terribly stereotypical, the main detective is incredibly unpleasant, but the finale does show that the creators can still lead us astray brilliantly. The twist still works quite well here, and you are still somewhat excited about what's yet to come. (02/17/2014)

No matter how problematic the first part was, its originality couldn't be denied. The sequel, however, is about something else entirely. I wasn't interested in the contrived victim storyline at all this time, rather I was annoyed that it took away most of the attention from the trapped Jigsaw. His word games and precise cat-and-mouse game far surpass the events in the house, where people behave like lunatics, disregarding all warnings and diving headfirst into suspicious situations without any mention of elaborate traps. It's just a shame that, even though the twist can take your breath away, it takes away a lot of the momentum from the previous events. While tension and surprises shouldn't be forgotten, logic is completely disregarded. (02/10/2006)