Michael LaCombe
Saw IV - Admiral Ackbar's Warning
July 13th 2008 13:33
WARNING! This review contains spoilers pertaining to the previous Saw Movies. Read at your own discretion
A long time ago... In the future... In a galaxy far far away... One fish-like creature uttered a phrase that has echoed throughout the annals of time itself... “It's a trap!”. This famous phrase has been etched into our minds, and now it faces us once more. But it now adorns a far lesser podium. It is the inexplicable tagline for Saw IV.
Now I don't think I need to remind anyone of the blindingly obvious, that this is the 4th installment in the Saw franchise, which means that, even before I so much as thought of watching it, I knew that I was likely to be subjected to a serious case of sequel-itis. And my assumptions were not proven wrong. It goes without saying that devout fans of the series will probably dance the streets in their gore filled love letter to James Wan and Leigh Whannell, even though they apparently had no hand in the writing of this one, they were still part of the film as can be expected, taking on the roles of executive producers.
The story is once again a convoluted tie in with the previous movies in the franchise, and as usual, requires an in depth understanding of the previous films if you are to have any hope of comprehending it's intricacies. This time we follow the not so enigmatic lead, Detective no first name Rigg, played by Lyriq Bent. Apparently he held some important role in Saw II, but by this point I had no memory of who this guy was, or why I should care. It was only after the film when I looked him up to get the actors name that I found out that he was actually in any earlier films. But I digress. He must run about one of Jigsaw's carefully planned out Rube Goldberg machines, in the killer's attempt to teach him the important life lesson that he 'can't save everyone'.
Almost every character that they could conceive of makes a return at one point or another, and every twist is given another hard tweak towards redundancy. The whole film follows the idea that Jigsaw is able to manipulate events so far ahead of time, that he can control the lives of everyone even from beyond the grave, as we all remember, he kicked the bucket sometime in the last 2 or 3 minutes of the previous film. This however falls flat in the last few moments of the film, as it's final twist proves that he wasn't thinking quite as far ahead as the whole film leads you to believe.
Unlike that fake death at the end of Saw II, he's just not coming back from this one
And this segways nicely into my next paragraph like an over paid executive on a... Well... A Segway. Whatever realism that the first 3 movies exhibited is all but abolished in Saw IV. One of the big draws of Saw's take on horror, was that, while far fetched, it was believable. It all seemed like something that really could potentially happen to you or someone you know if some psychopathic mastermind ever decided to try and teach humanity a lesson. And because deep down, every single human being feels guilt over some offense they have committed in their sordid past, this thought is reinforced, which amplifies the films presence ten fold. The problem with Saw IV, is that try as I might, I just couldn't bring myself to believe that all the events that were put into motion would stay exactly as they would be needed to stay, right up until the last possible moment when the characters came into contact with them.
While all the previous films took place in a room, or a small enclosed complex of some sort. Saw IV takes things to the streets, and has our main protagonist running from place to place around the city, once more twisting the idea so that the 'hero' is in no real danger, just that the people he encounters are, and his choices will decide their fates. This also takes a bit of the bite out of the suspense, but it's forgivable... I mean, it worked alright in Saw III right?
When the film isn't trying it's best to be as gore filled as possible, the other side of the story is a mix of an episode of Law & Order, and Lost. We follow the remaining members of the police force that haven't been either strapped into a trap, or been asked ever so politely to run around the city finding said strapped in people. As they try to crack the case, always one step behind Rigg, and consequently, Jigsaw. They uncover a good deal about the man behind the crimes, and we get a lovely series of scenes about Jigsaw from before he started playing with pointy objects and an advanced engineering degree. It shows something of a slideshow look at 'the fall of John Kramer, and the rise of Jigsaw'.
The first trap ever created by Jigsaw. It's allot more conservative than his later ones.
If you've seen the other 3 movies and just can't get enough of James Wan and Leigh Whannell masturbating in your face for an hour and a half, than it's an alright movie overall. Just don't expect it to live up to expectations. Here is where I would say something along the lines of “Saw IV. It's a trap alright!”. But I won't because that would be incredibly tacky of me (And yet, I've still said it even though I've taken the high road. This is what we writers like to call 'having our cake and eating it too').
The verdict: It's a rent movie. Grab it if you're up for some pointless brain bending and gore second only to the Hostel movies. But then I'm sure you'd get the same experience from performing a frontal lobe removal on yourself, taping it, and then watching it played back while still under the effects of the anesthesia (Just saying...).
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Comment by Daniel Mason