Jigsaw is back in this fifth installment of the bloody suspense filled franchise known as Saw. Well, of course this movie starts off pretty much where the last one left off. Officer Hoffman is left looking like the surviving hero after Jigsaw's reign of terror is seemingly over. What Hoffman doesn't know is that he is not the only survivor left. Agent Strahm who is left for dead escapes a trap that was supposed to get rid of him for good. Meanwhile, at another location 5 seemingly unconnected people find themselves trapped in a room where they are faced with a new set of Jigsaw games. This leaves 2 questions to be answered, will Agent Strahm be able to foil Hoffman's master plan and can these 5 trapped people survive Jigsaw's deadly games, what will happen?
Pros
The movie does give a lot more detail on the background of Jigsaw and explains how Mark Hoffman got involved with the notorious trap setter. The movie does not take long to get started and it keeps you guessing what will happen next. Once again, even without the big named actors, the acting in Saw V is excellent. They did leave the questions that most likely will be answered in Saw VI.
Cons
Much like Saw 3 and 4, this film is really starting to get a little to far fetched. The thing that made the first 2 Saw films is that they had a certain realistic quality that seems to be fading away in movies 3, 4 and 5. Saw V comes across as if they really didn't have a real direction that they wanted to go in and was almost just making things up as they went along. Yes, they did have your typical typical bloody Jigsaw games, they wasn't that many of them, and the one's that they did have were not that great. I also felt like they did not focus enough on the 5 people that were trapped in the room. It almost seemed like the 5 people had no purpose whatsoever. Finally, I felt that the ending could've been a lot better, especially considering that there is going to be a Saw VI.
Conclusion
Saw V is a good movie on it's own, but the problem is, that the first 2 Saw movies set the bar so high that it seems that the makers of Saw are struggling to meet it, and this Saw is a perfect example of that. They really need to take it back to the basics in Saw VI, otherwise the Saw legacy may be in real danger. I give this one a 2 out of 5.
