kerr9000 wrote:My Review of SAW X
Nice video
I enjoyed the first one but have mixed feeling about the sequels. I enjoyed this one, particularly the first half just getting to see John Krammer in relatively more subdued scenarios (Tobin Bell has so much charisma!).
Genius move to set this directly after Saw. Easily one of the better sequels - still very much a saw film but it had a more mature tone.
Great that John Krammer got so much screen time (he's the best part of these movies) - but if I had a criticism they humanised him too much. We like him because of his presence, complexity, intelligence, twisted morality and scrambled philosophy - but he is hypocritical and narasitic and evil. In X he comes across sympathetic because we have so much disdain toward his victims - but by the end of Saw 1 he was already responsible for a lot of evil. In terms of striking the right balance of redeemability Jigsaw (a film I didn't otherwise care for and I certainly enjoyed X a lot more) got it more right - the scene where he realised he was in the wrong to punish Logan over an honest mistake and comforted / gave him purpose during his PTSD.
Saw is more interesting when the victims are the flawed types that are being tested not because they're evil but "because they don't appreciate life" - it was a little harder to sympathies with his victims in Saw X.
Bell was great and Amanda absolutely crushed it too.
I know you're keen for Spiral sequel - think we'll get another Bell sequel - I'd be up for another standalone backstory type one like this