Jogos Mortais: O Final

For this review I am going to provide a guide as to how you can ensure that a franchise will never continue. But first the plot if you can call it a plot.

Detective Hoffman is still alive. Jill's attempt to kill him backfired when he found a way out of his supposedly inescapable trap. Whilst Hoffman is out to kill Jill he has to contend with setting up another set of traps for the lying Bobby Dagen and his friends. If Bobby is to make it to the end and save his wife, he will have to push himself to the limit.

Step 1: The plot. Ensure your plot is convoluted and does not make sense in the slightest. If you are worried that it does, then provide meaningless flashbacks. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Why change the format when it worked for Saw IV, V and VI. Just rinse and repeat.

Step 2: The main character. Who wants motivation, plausibility and character development? The answer nobody! Ensure your character is as bland as humanely possible. The make him unlikable, arrogant and self-absorbed. If he possesses any humanity wipe it out immediately!

Step 3: Jigsaw. The main villain is not Jigsaw anymore. To let your audience know this, have Tobin Bell dress as a gangster for one scene so that he can embarrass himself. Then watch the less interesting Hoffman blunder from scene to scene.

Step 4: The script. Make sure your script consists of lines that would make Sylvester Stallone worried. Fill it with profanity and the screams of human beings. When you have ninety pages of Horror clichés, you are almost ready to begin.

Step 5: The Acting. Ensure your actors are human and made of meat and bone; if they can scream louder than a toddler hire them forthwith.

Step 6: The camera work. The reason these films make so much money is because of their budget. You spent it on the traps, so borrow the cheapest hand held camera you can find and film all scenes in one take.

Step 7: The length. Make your film as short as possible, but feel ten times the length. Your audience will wonder how it lasted so long.

Step 8: The traps. Have as many traps as you want; the more the better. Who will notice pink blood? A lack of invention and tension? Nitpickers, that's who. If your audience is not sick within the first five minutes then you have failed them as a Director.

Step 9: Closure. Do not allow for closure. Provide questions with no answers. This will mean that if a sequel is green light then you can slowly divulge the answers in Saw M.

Step 10: The Obligatory Twist Ending. If the climax does not leave you scratching your head then change it again. Have characters you thought dead return, just so that you can destroy the brains of the audience.

If you follow all of these steps, you can guarantee the death of a franchise. Or for a few years at least until, it is re-made, re- envisioned, re-booted or all of the above.

What can one attribute to another entry into the "Saw" franchise? Number 7 comes right on the heels of the 3D craze and purports to be its final chapter. So Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is still dead and but his legacy still goes on in flashbacks. And in a protégé, Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). And in his widow, Jill (Betsy Russell). The entire soap opera of Jigsaw's family and professional life carries a narrative that attempts to reconcile the final film with the beginning of the franchise, and it definitely does seem to have recapitulated rather well for both hardcore fans as well as fairweather ones. But it has to be said that the films have been on a downward spiral since its fantastic first installment. It delivers the gore in more elaborate ways than the past few films have -- considering how quickly they were rushed out -- but loses that sense of cleverness and more importantly, that sense of menace that the franchise has always attempted to retain.

After the previous six films, the franchise does not so much look through the eye of the victims anymore as it does its villains who have an entire mythology unto themselves. And "Saw 3D" almost solely focuses on Hoffman, who it really has to be said, is a sad substitute for Jigsaw. He carries on his messiah's waning moralistic philosophy by continuing to find victims in need of a baptism by blood but finds himself hindered by Jill who is now cooperating with the police and giving them everything she knows to spite her husband's latest protégé. Add to this one Bobby Dagen (an actually funny Sean Patrick Flanery), who has written a best-selling book and sold DVDs about being a Jigsaw survivor and profiting from Hoffman's hallowed gift of life. Suffice to say, he (and his wife) quickly becomes the main plaything of this film's grand guignol torture play with 60 minutes set on the clock.

Now, even with the requisite twists and better-than-expected inventiveness of its traps, "Saw 3D" does not deliver in the least with its titular promise -- it's 3D sets yet another low standard for the technology. If the onus on watching this film is to attempt a different perspective, then it never quite reaches the mark. But who are we really kidding here? It's just one more excuse to milk this cash cow. The franchise has truly run its course. If you watched and enjoyed all seven of its films, at least you can be proud of that. Right? Anyone?

• www.moviexclusive.com

The seventh and last installment lays down all its cards... or at least the rest of its cards. The series certainly went out with a bang to say the least. Fans and/or gorehounds will love it, and there's enough entertainment for some of those who aren't overly familiar with the series or forgot a thing or two in the previous six films. It is possibly the most appealing "Saw" film, knowing that it's ACTUALLY the finale. But where does that leave us with quality? For a ninety minute film with numerous returning characters and just as appealing brand new characters, not to mention the burden of trying to keep originality with a redundant back-story, "Saw 3D" does pretty good given the obstacles it's forced to work with. What most people will probably criticize is the lack of twists and turns that made us love the original so much... but lets be honest, has there even been any jaw dropping twists in the series since "Saw IV" or even as far back as "Saw II"? It's up for debate, but the story in the seventh installment is pretty straight forward and that may let some people down. Given that it's a seventh film in a series with impressive continuity, "Saw 3D" is actually a really great film for what it is.

*** (out of four)

It's what you expect. There is no shock factor. Die hard fans that know every little thing about the movie will see this ending coming. I think they should have taken more time to plan out the games and come up with a larger shock. It seemed forced but maybe my expectations were too high for what the final project should have been in my mind. The 3D factor was fun but it seemed that the movie was revolving around the 3D concept more than the story line. Finally it was way too short, it felt like they were already dragging out what they did have. I believe the writers were just in a hurry to tie up all the loose ends, but then again, many liked the "Final Chapter". I Love "Saw" and I always will but by far, this is the worst one.

Pros:

A good storyline with plenty of twists.

Some of the most creative traps to date.

I really liked the scenes outside rather than always being set in the dark dingy rooms (excluding flashbacks) like in the other movies.

Good ending.

Cons:

Some of the acting was a little off, Chad Donella (Who played Gibson) did not do a very good job, I sometimes could not tell if he was trying to be sarcastic or if it was just bad acting before including no... he is just a dodgy actor. The scene during the television interview also displayed some terrible acting from the characters behind the camera crew as well as the woman interviewing 'Bobby'.

The 3D was disappointing.

At times there seemed to be too much going on at once with too many cuts to different locations