Worst to Best: Saw

There are a lot of Saw movies, and I’m here to separate the worst from the best. As we all know the 6th movie released on the 23rd which means I should have a review shortly. Eventually, when the next movie is released next year, I’ll do a review of that one as well. There is also an eighth movie slated for 2011, but I probably won’t do a review on that because by then I will have been in a very tragic accident while looking at Facebook Mobile while driving.

Anyway, on to the list! Keep in mind this list only covers the first five chapters to the story, since I haven’t seen the sixth installment yet.

5. Saw V

The Saw movies have progressed in a hard-to-follow confusing universe and timeline. The more you get through some of the plot, the more the mystery is uncovered and the more Jigsaw’s plans and intentions make sense. For instance when the detective helps Jigsaw set up the house from Saw II and asks him if he expects this to fold out how he wants it too, Jigsaw replies that he doesn’t anticipate anything he just lets the game play out. This movie uncovers a lot of how Jigsaw accomplished his feats and takes some of the untouchable feeling and awe that you feel toward him in the earlier movies. However this movie is essential to the plot and the some of the transitions between scenes are kinda cool and resemble Saw III.

4. Saw III

I felt that this movie was just a filler and didn’t have a lot of overall story to it. We learned a lot about a man named Jeff and about all of his problems, but this movie does keep some of the essence of the first two about the mysterious and untouchable Jigsaw and the mystery of some of the characters. He has to move through a series of tests which involves the people linked to his son’s death. This movie doesn’t add a ton to the overall plot and is more focused on itself, at least until the very end.

3. Saw IV

Saw IV deserves the third spot even though it is similar to the third movie in keeping to its own plot. This time around we learn how a lot of Jigsaw’s puzzles are set up without him even being involved. He essentially recruits people to set up games who are playing their own game. We even saw this in the first Saw as well, but we don’t see how Zep sets the first game in the series up.

2. Saw

It’s debatable if Saw should actually deserve the number one spot because it holds the most originality of all its successors for being the first. In my list it comes in second because the setting was a room for most of the plot and when you watch this movie the second time it kind of drags on. However, this movie gives the story a huge sense of mystery to Jigsaw as well as who he is and how he is accomplishing his disgusting games. Unlike the other movies you know only as much as the people who are in the game, which makes this movie unique from the others. The twist at the end of this one is huge compared to the others, but maybe that’s just because you expect a twist in the other movies.

1. Saw II

You can argue with me all you want about which movie in the series deserves this spot but in my opinion this one takes the cake. I enjoyed this movie the most compared to all the of the others. The originality of the series is maintained in this movie and is still shrouded in mystery. The plot takes you to more locations and this game involves more than one or two people, it involves a group of people and several mini games within it.  Everything just works out the way that Jigsaw wants it to and the ending’s twist is more surprising than even the one in the first movie.

6 thoughts on “Worst to Best: Saw

  1. Saw 1 is the best…the rest just sort of meld together in my mind.
    I’m still haunted by that shotgun necklace blowing that ladies head off. (not sure which movie…see—melds together)

  2. @Review Spew

    I agree with you they all sort of meld together in my head too and I just watched them all over again, and her head gets blasted in the third movie.

  3. I enjoyed your list, but I’ll be honest. I checked out of this franchise after the first movie. It had me for about 80 minutes, and then it blew it with that awful twist. And ever since I realized the next year after Saw II that they were just going to make a new one every year because these movies make bank at the box-office, I have used my official “Film Snob” card and refused to even acknowledge them. My major problem with the franchise is that I believe a lot of different writers have been used, which means that the studio cares exactly DICK about continuity and more about throwing a movie out each October that makes $70 million. And I can’t say I blame them. They found a successful formula to make a franchise for very little money, and they have a devoted audience that will see every one of them. I’m just not interested in getting jerked around for 90 minutes, then being given some monumental twist, and then some quick set-up for a sequel. Just not my bag.

  4. I hate the Saw movies. I watched up until Saw III (then only because friends were going and I was bored) but after that I just can’t take any more of it. The first one was kinda neat in a gory and disgusting way, the second was just… more of that, and the third was just… more of that only confusing, jumbled, and stupid.

    Other than my griping, good list!

  5. @ Zac and Andrew, I agree they are milking this for all its worth, and the story is just a jumble of confusion, if you like the stories which are suppose to keep you guessing until the end then these are for you, after I watched them all straight through I found a way to cope with the series which turned seriously overwhelming and my head almost exploded, I imagined they were all pieces of one really long film instead of separate entities

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