Just a dreadful franchise. I watched in sequential order, and knowing there were 10 of these, by the time I got sucked into Hoffman’s nonsense, I was checked out. Not only do I resent Saw 4-7, but I also now dislike Costas Mandylor as an actor, and a human being.I will forever associate him with the least interesting villain in a horror film,and the demise of a decent concept that is taken in a wild new direction. In the sixth film, Hoffman goes after the man who denied John’s insurance claim for a radical procedure not approved by the FDA here in America. This feels like a direct repeat of Saw 3, except instead of following a sympathetic lead, we follow someone Hoffman has decided to punish, much the same way he punished random people in the last few films. Here, everyone in a trap is put there in a guilt by association protocol.
There’s this rotating trap where he has the opportunity to try and save someone who worked for him, but really everyone here is just an employee. Imagine being pulled into a Jigsaw trap because your boss is perceived as being an asshole. That is always my problem with Hoffman, is that the same care that John seemed to take in his selections, Hoffman doesn’t care about. It’s like when Pinocchio goes where Jiminy Cricket tells him not to go, but he just stays there forever and the story never advances.
We almost got our reprieve through Jill, the lone character I was rooting for, who managed to read between the lines, and see that Hoffman isn’t worthy of the Jigsaw legacy. man, I really wanted the finale of this to go in a different way, and judging by the end of the next film, they realized fans were done as well. They just realized it too late. Isn’t it weird that there were three films where John was the leading Jigsaw, but Hoffman got 4? Sure, there are three movies after Saw 7 to help even the playing field a bit, but I’m not sure they learned the lesson in having a character with a slightly more nihilistic personality, and less focused on actual redemption.
Descriptive Video Works did the AD once again, with Paula Hoffman narrating. I realize the irony in Hoffman being an awful lead, but Paula Hoffman also doing the audio description, thereby winning the Hoffman award.
If they had the balls to off Hoffman, I probably would have been willing to at least consider a fresh score. Instead, they made us watch one more film after this full of bad decisions, before deciding it was time for something new. Saw 6 is just a retread without teeth. The real trap is in getting someone to watch it.
Rotten: 3.7/10
