Plot: What’s it about?
Another year is upon us which means that another installment of the ever-popular “Saw” series has left the theaters after its Halloween opening. Since 2004, the “Saw” movies have entertained audiences with its gruesome, psychological horror and scary torture devices. I mean really, if I ever see one of these devices (even as a prop), I’ll probably turn around and run off screaming like a little girl. That aside, there was debate as to the “Saw” series would continue, but as evidenced by the “V” we can see that’s not the case. The films are consistent money-makers and so long as the plots are at least fairly believable and the ways in which people die are new and interesting then they’ll most likely keep making them. This leads me to wonder where exactly “Saw V” went wrong?
“Saw V” isn’t really like the other movies in the series in that it doesn’t really have a linear plot. Part of the problem, I think, is that they killed off the main character of Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) in “Saw III”. Granted, they rectified this in “Saw IV” when they gave us some back story on the character so we could see some of his motivations. In “Saw V” they continue this trend only this time we see he had an accomplice in Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). I don’t actually remember seeing this character in previous films, so I have to assume he’s new. But they could be setting him up to be the “new” Jigsaw. We also have a sub plot about five people who have to make their way through a series of obstacles and, wouldn’t you know it, they start to die in horrible ways.
“Saw V” really lost its way and it was evident. While I commend the filmmakers for being able to produce a movie a year (not an easy feat), it’s not really worth it if the films aren’t that good or entertaining. Usually I’m cringing at some of the torture devices or the ways in which people die but this just seemed totally uninspired. Add to this that the two main characters (Mandylor and Scott Patterson who plays Agent Strahm) look almost identical, and you’ve got a mess on your hands. I’ve no idea if or when “Saw VI” will come out and it might be that we’ve seen the end of the “Saw” movies for awhile. But like everything, I’m sure that we’ll see it again in the future. Personally I’d have ended the series with “Saw IV” as this latest installment just doesn’t really make any sense.
Video: How does it look?
“Saw V” is presented in a 1.78:1 AVC HD transfer that looks, for the most part, pretty good. All of the “Saw” movies have a very stylized look to them in that they’re mostly dark and have shades of green throughout (this was most prevalent in “Saw”). Black levels are very solid, though some of the very dark scenes had some noticeable noise in the background. Flesh tones seem normal, but then again it’s hard to tell what’s “natural” and what isn’t in a dark room. “Saw V” looks as good as its predecessors, but there’s a bit of room for improvement.
Audio: How does it sound?
I can remember in some of the previous “Saw” movies that the soundtrack, quite literally, rocked. I didn’t get the same feeling with this installment. The DTS-Master Audio track does have some moments, but nothing really stood out to me as being really dynamic. Dialogue was very natural and we hear plenty of the recorded voice that belongs to Jigsaw, though even that seemed a bit on the weak side. This track didn’t really impress me like the other films did, or maybe I’d just lost interest?
Supplements: What are the extras?
“Saw V” again seems to be going through the motions in terms of supplements, providing a few audio commentaries that seem rather dull and dry and a handful of featurettes showing us some of the various traps throughout the film. Admittedly the feature on “The Fatal Five” as I guess they were dubbed was probably the best as we get some footage on the set up and execution (pardon the pun) of the scene. But we know the actors won’t ever be in any real danger and these prove it. I’m still unable to get the molog feature to work, but evidently for anyone out there who can, you can insert shapes into the actual movie and share it with your friends online. The original theatrical trailer is also included as is a digital copy of the film.
