Available at Amazon.com

Depending on your opinion of Saw, if you’re like me you’re wondering, is Saw II as good as the first one? Is it as bad? Or, possibly, even better? You be the judge.

The basic premise of Saw II is the same as Saw. I know, you’re shocked. Put people in a messed up situation, see if they can survive, and possibly…learn their lesson. Also, like its predecessor, the movie really only revolves around one of these messed up situations. That is, eight seemingly innocent people wake up to find themselves players in one of Jigsaw’s games. They’re all trapped in a room where deadly gas is being vented in. If they cannot find the various antidotes hidden throughout their surroundings they will die. Donnie Wahlberg is Eric Matthews, a washed up old cop, whose son, Daniel, is one of the players in Jigsaw’s latest game. It’s a game of survival, who will win?

From the beginning, I had a feeling Saw II was flawed. You know how sometimes you can just tell how the rest of the movie will go from the first few minutes…yeah it was something like that. The movie opens with a victim “playing” one of Jigsaw’s games. Now, I’m trying to include as little spoilers as possible so I won’t get too far into it, but the scenario was extremely similar to one from the first Saw. I found myself cringing for a couple seconds because of the gross factor, but that was it.

All the creepy scenarios in the movie are just not nearly as creepy or interesting as the first. There weren’t any times where I was scared, or at the edge of my seat. Overall I just found this movie to be not nearly as compelling and thought provoking as the first one. It had more of a thriller-action kind of feel to it than a psychological-horror kind of feel.

There were times I also kind of found myself bored. Jigsaw does some really long ranting and my mind just wandered away from the movie. Like I said, it really doesn’t keep you at the edge of your seat. One of the biggest reasons is its very predictable. For example, all the victims have a common link for why they’re in this mess (surprise, surprise) and you can easily figure it out in a couple minutes.

It just felt like they took the original Saw, mixed it up, through in more people, and made the movie. There are almost too many characters actually. Unlike, the first Saw, you don’t get much character development, so in the end you don’t really care all that much what happens to any of the characters.

I really wanted this movie to have the same feel as the first one and it didn’t. But, like the first Saw, the ending has a twist and kind of starts to get borderline cheesy.

Overall, I was disappointed in this sequel. The first Saw I enjoyed, this one, while I was entertained, I left feeling unfulfilled. However, I have talked to many people about this movie and some of them really do love it, so I don’t want to turn anyone away completely.

It’s just one of those movies you see to be entertained.

Reviewer: Sara Drapp

Also available on Amazon.com:

Saw II Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ^[1] * Saw (UnCut Edition) ^[2]