Before I start I'm just gonna say that in no way was this film a good sequel. I thought Saw 6 was pretty much the second to third best sequel to Saw 1 and I didn't believe for a second that Saw 7 would live up to what Saw 6 managed to do. It set the bar up high wheres Saw 4 and 5 were really poor and lowered the expectations of a good saw film. But Saw 7 isn't bad. Its just not all that either.
Onto the film...
It starts with a credit sequence while also cutting back and forth between events from the end of the first film in the Bathroom scene. It shows Dr. Gordon crawling out and bleeding to death before he gets to a hot steam pipe and uses it to burn his blood stamp onto it and stop the bleeding.
This scene helped establish the mood for the rest of the film because after what? 7 years...Dr Gordon has finally been confirmed to have survived. So now the question is what happened to him after that? Well the disappointment is Gordon isn't the main focus of the film at all but he does appear and has a major part that plays throughout the whole series.
The next scene is the PUBLIC TRAP. It was good but the acting from the teenagers was so forced and unconvincing that it took away the tension from the scene. Instead it came off as a comedy. It was fun to see but when you hire shitty actors including the actors who just stand there and watch and can't pull of a serious terrified face then something has gone wrong. But overall, the scene helped establish that even after his death Jigsaw's legacy was still alive and kicking.
Next scene was the CAR TRAP that was been hyped up for a while and this and the gore effort was good. It'll make you feel sick to your stomach with what goes on here but again, the trap itself didn't feel all that big. Again, its ruined by the comedic fake ass acting here and I didn't know whether to laugh or not.
After this trap is over we get moving on the main storyline about new character Bobby Drake I believe he was called. He is a survivor from one of Jigsaw's traps who has decided to cash in on his story of survival and has become famous.
He has written a book, has talk shows and is the head of a Jigsaw's survivor's group which I believed would play a major part in the film with previous survivors returning and all of them been involved in a last trap of sorts. But that is not the case here sadly. Its mostly about Bobby and how he has lied about been a survivor and is getting punished for been a asswhore.
The good thing about the survivors group meeting is you get cameos from some of the survivors of previous film including Dr. Gordon who mocks Bobby about the whole thing of been a survivor. Obviously by this point, Gordon is aware that Bobby is a liar and a fraud but he doesn't point it out and just takes the piss out of him. Brilliant scene but sadly one that doesn't have much of a impact on the whole film except to show that Bobby is feeding of the pain of others.
Once the film gets really going, the film pretty much becomes a SAW 3/6 RIP OFF. Its repetitive. We've seen it all before and Bobby's journey to save his friends and wive offers nothing new to the table. Its pretty much him going from one trap to the other to help save the people who helped him on his scam of becoming a celebrity and you get this concept of "SEE, HEAR, SPEAK NO EVIL"
The concept of the arts were good but they weren't all that exciting as the traps in the previous films. The traps felt small compared to what the other films had going for it.
The first trap is of Bobby having to pull out a key from his Marketing PA's stomach while there is a fishhook attached to it and at the same time there are spikes slowly moving towards her throat and if she screams the spikes will move faster towards her. The concept was good, the way the trap was done was good but jesus christ, the acting. "SHUT THE FUCK UP BITCH"
How can she shut up when you pulling out a key and a fishhook from her stomach? Obviously she's gonna scream like hell. The funny parts were when he keeps putting his hand to her mouth to shut her up and he just keeps repeating to her to sip it and she keeps repeating to him to just to pull the key out fast. It was a good scene but it came of as been more funny then serious.
The second trap is of his Lawyer been pushed towards a pair of spikes that will go through her eyes and mouth unless Bobby can hold a weight machine of sorts for 30 seconds and stop the Lawyer from moving towards the trap and wait for the 1 minute timer to end. The twist is a pair of spikes have to be cut into his hips while Bobby holds the weight of the machine.
Now this scene again, the concept was good but the way it was done just felt repetitive. We just had a spike trap and before that we had a spike trap of Bobby having to swing from a cage he was in and jump to the other side while avoiding the spikes. So basically we've had THREE FUCKING SPIKE TRAPS SO FAR. REALLY REPETITIVE.
So what happens you ask or think? He flops the trap. He can't hold on for 30 seconds because of the spikes been pushed into his hips and he lets go at the last second which causes his Lawyer to meet a SPIKEY END. Bitch is gone.
Third trap has Bobby trying to save his best friend who is on the other side of a room with a broken floor between them. His friend is blinded by a mask and has a noose around his head. Bobby has one minute to guide his friend across the floor boards placed around the room and guide him to safety while at the same time having to head towards the exit door and getting the key that will unlock the noose around Bobby's neck before if he slips and falls or if the timer runs out he'll be pulled up and hanged.
This Trap was good. I liked it. I'd been waiting to see a trap where someone has to balance on a beam while making it safely across. But what happens at the end? Instead of jumping over with the key and unlocking the noose, Bobby throws the key towards his friend and the key drops. Timer runs out and Bobby is hanged. That's it. No goring deaths. He is hanged and its all over.
So far Bobby has failed to save anyone. He heads to the final trap where his wive is been forced down towards the floor. Here Bobby has to attach hooks through his chest muscle, pull himself up towards the ceiling and connect two electric rods together to save his wive before the timer runs out. The reason for this trap is because Bobby, when lying about his fake story said this is how he was tested by Jigsaw. So now his imagination has gotten the better of him and the test becomes a reality.
So Bobby proceeds to cut the hooks into him instead of been a smart ass and actually attaching the hooks his belt which would make the trap a whole less painful and more simple and realistic.
So Bobby pulls himself to the top of the ceiling, grabs the rods, is about to attach them when the hooks rip out from his chest because they can't support him. Bobby falls back all the way to the floor and has to watch as his wive gets trapped into a ROCKET SHIP OR ENGINE whatever the fuck it was. Seriously, it looked like a rocket ship.
So she gets locked up in that and it starts burning up and his wive gets burned alive inside and turns into a human sausage while Bobby drops down to the floor after touching the electric fence that surrounds his wive's trap and cries as his wive dies. And thats it. Thats the end of Bobby. You don't see what happens to him.
The story about him been a liar was interesting and concepts used for the traps were good but they weren't executed well and I was misled to believe that SAW 7's trap would involved survivors from previous games. A kind of last stand, retake test of sorts but we get nothing of the sorts and we spend half the film on a character who pretty much deserves to suffer for been a lying bastard and in the end you really don't feel sorry for him.
The real victim here is the wive. She didn't no he lied about been a victim and she suffers the worsen death then the other people before hand. It really isn't fair but I guess it was trying to show how live isn't fair overall. In that even the innocent who didn't do anything or had no involvement will always suffer. That or the creators/writers just enjoyed watching a poor defenceless woman getting owned.
The Bobby Storyline like I mentioned is only half of the story. The other half is a continuing storyline left off at the end of SAW 6. Hoffman was found out and then was ambushed by Jill and put into the infamous bear reserve trap. Of cause been the unstoppable psycho villain badass that he is, Hoffman escaped and was left with a smily scar on his cheek.
Jill runs for her life and seeks protection from Internal Affairs and we meet new cop character Gibson who in this film explains that Hoffman once saved his life that the two are familiar with one another.
Hoffman meanwhile is busy monitoring the game Bobby is going through but his main focus been on finding and killing Jill for what she did to him. We get a nice scene of him stitching up his wounds before continuing on his one day mission.
The basic outline of what happens? Well Hoffman tricks the entire police unit by distracting them with car trap from earlier, and then leading Gibson to one place, and causing a explosive that kills some people and then ending up switching a dead body from the car trap with his own and sneaking into the police station where Jill is been kept guarded.
We then get this whole awesome badass scene of Hoffman going after and stabbing everyone Assassin's Creed style through the throat, snapping a woman's neck and shooting Gibson's partner in the eye before eventually getting to Jill.
And what happens? She stabs him with a pen and runs away screaming like a stupid blonde bitch that she is but Hoffman gets her, and puts her in the very first bear trap form the first film and we finally get to see what happens when someone fails to get the trap off.
It was cool to see but what's annoying is how the Jill and Hoffman battle was treated. Earlier on we get a dream sequence of Jill getting killed by a go kart which Hoffman uses on her but of cause it ends up been a dream. You think she'd live after showing something like that but no. Jill's character is pretty much wasted here. After all the stuff she had to go through in previous films she meets her end by becoming the typical damsel in distress. I expected more. Much more and this wasn't it.
As for Gibson and the police unit that went after Hoffman and to save Bobby from his trap? They all get owned. One man manages to yet again kill off everyone and get away with it but thats Hoffman to you. He's become the main villain and as such he has the horror movie villain roles to apply for him. However, even Hoffman gets owned at the end in perhaps one of the best yet predicted and fan nerd twists we have all been waiting for, for 7 years.
The ending of the movie pretty much steals the show. It wraps up any loose ends left while opening one or two small questions that need to be answered. The ending is left open for a Saw 8 but overall, the way the film ends will hopefully leave a smile on any Saw fans face. It ends where it began with a remix of the famous Saw theme playing in the background and we get the final classic quote of the serious to end it on a high note.
So in conclusion, the ending is pretty much what makes Saw 7 stand on its own. Without it there'd be no point and because of it we can say goodbye to a series that has haunted us and captured our imagination.
Quick notes on the gore, yes it was goring but not as goring like say Saw 6 or 3 but it did have some nasty goring moments. And the 3D efforts weren't surprisingly bad but they could've been better but what was done was good.
7/10.
PROS: Beginning, Dr. Gordon, Hoffman been a badass, Ending.
CONS: Bobby's storyline, some of the traps, conclusion of Jill's storyline.
If you haven't seen it, go and watch it, it's not bad by all means. It could've been better. All films can be better but what was done was done good. It could've been worse but thanks to a good opening and ending, and a unstoppable villain, the film has a saving grace thanks to them in my opinion. Enjoy.
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