3 out of 5

Director: Kevin Greutert

Yeah, that’ll do.  There’s nothing really special about this Saw entry except for showing the evolving skills of director Kevin Greutert (as with Bousman before him), but it successfully stays in tune with everything that’s been established beforehand – something most long running movie series can’t say – and goes for broke with its traps without over-abusing the native 3D.  But as we’re dealing with wrapping things up, the plot somewhat stalls just to put pieces into place and is for certain lacking in Jigsaw (there’s only so many “I recorded this before dying” tapes to show).  Thankfully, Gretuert repeats his sympathetic victim portrayal from part VI with Sean Patrick Flanery, who plays purported Jigsaw survivor Bobby, making dollars off of his story.  What works for his portrayal – and his various hanger-ons, whom are inevitably involved in the “save them via sacrifice” traps – is that it feels truer to life than most of the bottom-barrel, paranoid profanity spewers in the majority of the flicks.  While Bobby certainly has his flaws, which are revealed to us in flashbacky Saw fashion, he is also human, and responds to his tests with a proper blend of confusion and understanding and fear and frustration.  Greutert again mixes up the color palette a bit and starts tossing in the cool transition swipes from IV, but again, through his own, slightly more paced framing vs. his series contemporaries.  Saw 3D also opens up the insularity a bit – there’s a dash of cheeky humor in the ridiculousness of things – like the absurd outdoor trap that starts the film – and though the colors were purposefully overdone to counter the dimming 3D (apparently), it actually adds a sort of old school splatter feel to events, matched by – as the BD review notes – a total nod to Fulci in one of the traps.  Costas Mandylor takes on our relentlessly motivated Jason role, with Betsy Russell a twisted Final Girl portrayal, making the final notes of how things play out all the more interesting for genre fans and followers of the series.  Of course, you could still go on from here if desired, but script helmers Melton and Dunstan did an admirable job of pointing the franchise in a direction with more depth and longevity than could ever have been expected, elevating it to levels pretty much never achieved by multi-part franchises.  The ‘end’ of Saw isn’t the highlight of the whole series, but it sets its sights at about the right level and hits the marks it intended to.