I became a fan of the gory horror franchise through the YouTube series, Dead Meat and engaged in a binge watch of the series in preparation for the upcoming Jigsaw. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with the final film of the original seven film run. I get that the box office returns of the previous film were lackluster (in spite of fans considering it a Surprisingly Improved Sequel) and that prompted mashing up three films into one, but the end result is dreadful. First off, Bobby is a terrible protagonist. Say what you want about Jeff or Officer Rigg. At least you could root for them since the latter was a Nice Guy and the former had a Freudian Excuse; our "hero" this time is just a greedy, manipulative, unlikable and ultimately idiotic shill. The other "protagonist", Det. Gibson, is no better as an incompetent Replacement Scrappy for the likes of superior characters Det. Strahm and Det. Kerry who dies halfway through the film in one of the stupidest and most unimaginative of traps. Secondly, cards on the table, the film is misogynistic. I, like many, hate what they did to Jill Tuck: whose bright idea was it to turn her into Princess Peach? Are you telling me that the same person who survived six other films has automatically gone from a badass who left Hoffman to die in a reverse bear trap to a helpless and defenseless wimp (seriously, a gratuitous dream sequence has her even chained to a railway)? Ridiculous. Plus, all of Bobby's female colleagues, including his innocent wife, die pretty gruesome deaths while his lone male associate dies of a simple hanging, and no, in spite of his lies, Bobby does survive the film. Finally, Hoffman and the returning Dr. Gordon both end up wasted characters: the former ends up being turned into a generic serial killer instead of being the previous methodical super genius he was before, while the latter is treated as little more than an afterthought. I'm glad he was the one who brought down Hoffman, but I hate how little he was used in the film overall due to the film pushing Bobby down our throats. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.
An awful end to a great horror franchise
I became a fan of the gory horror franchise through the YouTube series, Dead Meat and engaged in a binge watch of the series in preparation for the upcoming Jigsaw. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with the final film of the original seven film run. I get that the box office returns of the previous film were lackluster (in spite of fans considering it a Surprisingly Improved Sequel) and that prompted mashing up three films into one, but the end result is dreadful. First off, Bobby is a terrible protagonist. Say what you want about Jeff or Officer Rigg. At least you could root for them since the latter was a Nice Guy and the former had a Freudian Excuse; our "hero" this time is just a greedy, manipulative, unlikable and ultimately idiotic shill. The other "protagonist", Det. Gibson, is no better as an incompetent Replacement Scrappy for the likes of superior characters Det. Strahm and Det. Kerry who dies halfway through the film in one of the stupidest and most unimaginative of traps. Secondly, cards on the table, the film is misogynistic. I, like many, hate what they did to Jill Tuck: whose bright idea was it to turn her into Princess Peach? Are you telling me that the same person who survived six other films has automatically gone from a badass who left Hoffman to die in a reverse bear trap to a helpless and defenseless wimp (seriously, a gratuitous dream sequence has her even chained to a railway)? Ridiculous. Plus, all of Bobby's female colleagues, including his innocent wife, die pretty gruesome deaths while his lone male associate dies of a simple hanging, and no, in spite of his lies, Bobby does survive the film. Finally, Hoffman and the returning Dr. Gordon both end up wasted characters: the former ends up being turned into a generic serial killer instead of being the previous methodical super genius he was before, while the latter is treated as little more than an afterthought. I'm glad he was the one who brought down Hoffman, but I hate how little he was used in the film overall due to the film pushing Bobby down our throats. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.