Delayed Reaction: Saw III

What I Guessed It Was About: A bunch of strangers are forced to do a lot of horrible things to themselves and others as the thread to the original movie is lost even more than it already was.

How I Came Into It: I've covered this already. I don't like these movies. I get no thrill out of what they do. I'm watching them in part so that I can say that I gave them a fair chance, and I really am. The first movie was better than I thought. The second was not. If this one was great, I'd admit it. That doesn't mean I wasn't prepared for the opposite.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This advances the larger story in a way that almost makes it look like it was the plan all along (as opposed to most horror franchises where the first was stand-alone and a mythology gets developed before making the second). The new tortures were plenty inventive and disgusting (the pig chopper, for instance) for the fans of that stuff.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: I assumed the husband and wife story (aka "the twist") pretty early on, which killed the big reveal. The problem with being clever, which the first Saw was, is that it's hard to do. You can't be 90% consistent to be clever. You have to think it all through. As the Saw series progresses, Jigsaw leaves far too much up to chance. That it all worked out as he expected then isn't being a mastermind. It's being exceptionally lucky. I should be leaving this movie with a grin on my face at the thoroughness of it all, not thinking "It's sure lucky that he shot her at the end".

Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend