Movie Review: Jigsaw (2017)

The movie stars Tobin Bell, Matt Passmore, Callum Keith Rennie, Hannah Emily Anderson and Laura Vandervoort.

My wife wanted to see this movie when it first came out last year but, because of other commitments, we weren't able to see it at the theater. So, when she remembered it was on DVD, we ended up getting it through Netflix and finally watched it last night.

We both love the Saw movies. However, even the best films start to run their course after several sequels and I was somewhat concerned that would end up being the case this time too. As it turns out, while it wasn't as good as the first couple installments, it still ended up being a surprisingly good movie.

I think the thing I really enjoyed about this film was the mystery. John Kramer (Bell) should have been dead. Yet, not only is there evidence pointing in his direction, the movie actually shows him committing murders. It was something that was really puzzling and left me scratching my head up until the very end, when the movie finally reveals the twist that explains all of it.

As I said before, the movie wasn't quite as good as the original or even the first couple of sequels, at least in my opinion. This is mostly because the murders themselves seemed to lack any real imagination. Part of the fun of the first movies was the way Jigsaw would think of some sort of ironic twist that would make his victims kick themselves for failing. While this movie did, admittedly, attempt that on one occasion, it just didn't seem to be the same (and was kind of predictable).

I also wasn't overly impressed with the ending. Yes, the twist that revealed why we were seeing Kramer was decent. But the big reveal about who the killer was wasn't anything that was that big of a surprise, especially since one of other characters figured it out about halfway through the film. I would have much rather seen a twist that involved someone that wouldn't be even remotely suspected.

The movie lacks the magic of the first couple of films. However, it did end up being better than I was expecting it to be and I would still recommend it as a result.

My Grade: B