I remember this movie well. I saw it in theaters the night after I had my first cancer treatment, and we watched it to wind down and relax after the stressful day. We're cool like that. I was hesitant at first, after I hated part 4 in this series so much, but I ended up being glad I watched it, because I absolutely loved it. I was shocked not only because this is the fifth movie in a series, which exponentially increases the chances that it will suck, but also because I hated the movie before, which usually means a series is going downhill fast.
In this movie, an FBI agent is obsessed with proving that there's another killer perpetrating the Jigsaw murders, even though the original Jigsaw killer is dead. Meanwhile, we meet five strangers who wake up in a room and discover that they're caught in one of the elaborate Jigsaw traps, and they try to figure out how they're connected to each other and what they have to do to survive. We also get more backstory on Jigsaw's ex wife, and his newest protégé who is continuing his murders after his death.
It's funny how time changes your perceptions sometimes. Like I said in my review of part 4 in the series, I didn't hate it as much the second time around, and watching this movie again, especially back-to-back with part 4 (without a year in between viewings) I find I don't mind Costas Mandylor or his acting. He's actually pretty good in this movie. I thought he couldn't act and that's why he seemed wooden to me in part 4, but I think he's trying to play the character as cold and cut off from his feelings (which is how he's kept going after tragedies in his life). I don't know if I totally agree with his choice, but I can see now it IS a choice and not just a fuck up on his part. Live and learn.
This is another entry in the series where I guessed one of the big twists, having to do with the 5 people caught in the Jigsaw trap, and I was pissed that they didn't figure it out sooner (or even really stop to think and give themselves a chance to figure anything out). I get that they're in a terrifying situation, but come on, people! It would be my luck that I'd be trapped in one of these groups and I'd be telling everyone we have to figure things out while they run around and act like idiots and get us killed.
It's always nice to see Julie Benz in a movie, and she's good as always here as one of the 5 people in Jigsaw's trap (though I wanted to punch her like I wanted to punch them all). There's a lot of layering to the story and the plot gets even more complicated as always. I feel like some of the twists don't line up, but it's kinda pointless to get mad about that. Unless everything is painstakingly planned out and plotted from the beginning, when these movies get made, the plot is bound to get wibbly-wobbly eventually. There's enough tense plotting going on that at least as far as this movie goes, things line up and the conclusion is pretty amazing (and disgusting, but disgustingly amazing) so i still really like this entry in the series.
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