After Saw VI marked a relatively unhealthy box office dip for the series in 2009 despite earning some of the series' best reviews since the original film, Lionsgate decided to send the series off in 2010 with a final entry designed to bring as much closure to the series as possible, answering long-term questions such as the fate of Dr. Lawrence Gordon after severing his foot and crawling out of the first film's infamous bathroom and straight into ambiguity. Though the final film offers up some fundamentally intriguing ideas, like bringing together a handful of survivors from throughout the series, its attempts to focus on a number of new characters, including Sean Patrick Flannery's Bobby and Chad Donella's woeful new detective character, end up leading the film nowhere as their stories ultimately contribute nothing to the series' endgame. As such, characters audiences actually want to spend time with are given nothing to do, with Cary Elwes' long-awaited return as Dr. Gordon amounting to an all-too-fleeting role and series anchor Tobin Bell being reduced to the point that it's hard to remember he's in the film at all. And though seeing Jigsaw's successor-gone-rogue/wet blanket of personality Hoffman finally get what's coming to him by film's end is relatively satisfying, it's not as rewarding as it should be due to the film's general aimlessness leading up to it. Ultimately, the series' final entry is its weakest, with its failure to expand on any unexplored concepts and lack of desire to allow Tobin Bell any screentime leading the film to go out with an uninspired whimper instead of the give-it-all-we-got attitude it should've embraced.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
