Not Your Mommy’s Saw

Review: SAW III

Saw III on Rotten Tomatoes
Official Saw III movie site

Saw III pushes the psychological horror/thriller genre even further without becoming a retread of the previous two Saw films. Like Saw II, the movie’s produced by Darren Lynn Bousman. The writing includes both writers from the first two Saw movies. From Saw I, James Wan, and from the second Saw movie, Leigh Whannell. Knowing this, it seems some elements from both films are woven together to make Saw III. Like in Saw I, there’s a dramatic back-stories of the victims. Essences of Saw II shine through in the editing of the film which inner-cuts between the two story lines.

The plot still involves Jigsaw (acted by Tobin Bell) but this time he’s not the star in his game. His protege, Amanda (acted by Shawnee Smith), has taken over and is ready to dispense some of the goriest scenes in any of the Saw films. (Hopefully the gore is a given if one is thinking about going to see a Saw film.)

Jigsaw’s not doin’ so hot. He’s near death and in need of a little tender love and care. Amanda enlists the help of Lynn (acted by Bahar Soomekh), a doctor, to care for Jigsaw in a rather unique way. Without giving it away, Lynn must help Jigsaw or become another victim in one of his games.

The other story line going on in Saw III involves a man, Jeff (acted by Angus Macfadyen) who’s stuck in one of Jigsaw’s game. Like the other games, Jeff is faced with choices involving sacrifice and death.

The story and writing worked for the most part. What worked was the mixing of psychological elements from Saw I with the gruesome elements of Saw II. Instead of just getting the shock value of the violence, we also feel the emotional agony the violence causes surrounding characters. Each scene of violence seems to be effecting not just one person, but everyone involved. Another element that really worked was the fact that this film adds to the richness of the entire Saw series by going back and telling bits and pieces of the previous films from a different angle. One thing that didn’t work was that some of the catch phrases used in the previous films were overused in Saw III.

The most notable aspect of the film-making is the editing effects. The scenes that would normally freak out the viewer have been intensified with camera and editing effects including quick edits, zooms, and lighting flashes. (Picture an 80s Flava Flav video.) This works in both adding suspense and wince-value to an already disturbing set of scenes. Match this up to dark musical swells and each dramatic moment seems like a cliff-hanger from a TV hospital drama.

The generally dark tone of the series is withheld, and the ambiance of the sets becomes as much of a character in the film as the actors themselves. Even when the sets are well-lit, the light only seems to highlight an even more shocking moment. We’re expecting for things to pop out of the darkness at us, but sometimes knowing what’s coming is even worse.

One thing that didn’t work were the back-stories of the victims. Instead of getting the viewer into the head of the characters, the back-stories just seem like bad bits from a Lifetime TV drama. More dramatic moments from the character’s past could have helped us sympathize with them. Instead, the viewer is shown the characters staring blankly off into space that seem more like bad cologne commercials.

More psychological, still gruesome, and often shocking, Saw III lives up to and surpasses the previous films. We’re given the best of what worked in both films to end up with a better movie-going experience and story than either movie did alone. What worked was violence that effected not only the victim, but also inflicted emotional damage to the surrounding characters in the film. What didn’t work was the fact that the writers started overusing some of the key phrases used in the previous Saw films. Fans will not be disappointed by this movie. The interesting story lines and film-making are only complemented by the insight
provided into the previous films. This serves as only icing on the cake of an already great
film.

Rating: 4/5

[10/25/2006] Better Blogging

Trying out some new blogging software. I know you all really care, but I found it pretty cool. What
Performancing is a plug-in for Firefox that lets you type into a window that sits right below the web page you’re viewing. I can then drag and drop things from a web-page into the area I type into for added sha-bang. The best part is I can one-click publish to my blog, to MySpace, or other blogs I have. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. What this means is that it will be easier for me to blog; and better for you, the loyal reader.

[Edit]
I was previously using Flock to publish my blog. I kind of got out of that because of the crazy things the blog poster was doing to my blog post before it was posted. The craziest thing was what it interpreted me doing and what I actually wanted to do. Now this is happening in Performancing too, but not as badly.

What I’ve noticed Performancing do is add a blue border to all images I drag and drop from a web page into Performancing. I may end up ditching it sooner or later, but to be honest, I got Firefox 2 and wanted to try it out! 🙂
[/Edit]

Until I have something to actually write about,

Kevin

[10/23/2006] A Beach of a Weekend

[10/23/2006] A Beach of a Weekend

I had a great weekend this weekend at the beach. We went to Assateague State Park. It was only Ryan, Abra, and myself, but still very fun. Tom and Lauren did show up too and that was a pleasant surprise. I was a bit upset at the poor turnout considering everyone I invited, but who was meant to be there was. If you want to know more about it, please just talk to me. I don’t feel like writing out the entire story here. Ask about apples in the fire and our ‘dark’ covert ops mission.

Other than that, simply being in Maryland at Assateague was a bit trigger for me. I was reliving some old feelings of a certain female I once dated. We went there one weekend when things were good. (This had to have been 4 – 4 and half years ago.) She’s recently appeared in some journal writing I’ve done. She’s a person I owe amends to for the way I mistreated her back then. A close friend questioned me to see if maybe I set myself by going there knowing that these feelings would probably come up. I think in a way I did. I also think that I didn’t know how bad these feelings would cause me inner turmoil like they have. (I wasn’t doing this journal writing when I initially made the plans.)

I am not sure there’s much to say about that except that it’s not up to me to do anything with the thoughts and feelings that I’ve been having except to let God deal with it. I am not ready to actually make the amends for the things I’ve done wrong to this person, but it does help being aware that I still have such feelings. Not everything has immediate closure. Closure is optional in my experience. Even if I did set myself up, or if I didn’t… it always seem that I’m meant to be where I am for a reason.

Overall, I’m very glad I went and work isn’t that bad right now. I love how my life takes a back seat when all that bothers me while camping is that a fire’s lit and that there’s some food source available to us. I can’t wait to go back.

That being said, I’ll keep you posted,
Kevin

Live concerts a go-go

NPR : NPR Live Concert Series

Found a fun website today. The NPR Live Concert Series features full, streaming live concerts for free. I listened to a Jose Gonzalez concert today and it was awesome. He even covered Massive Attack’s Teardrop, which I love. The concert was an hour long and for free, that was a great deal in my opinion. They feature mostly lesser-known stars who come through the DC area where NPR is located. The artists, for the most part, are featured playing from the 9:30 club in DC. If you like discovering new bands, live music, or a combination of the two, I’d highly recommend checking out this website.

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