Yes, the Saw-franchise is beginning to get a bit tiresome. I'm still a fan of it thought but it needs some new fresh ideas fast.

Of course in essence all Saw movies are more or less the same. However all previous movies still knew to keep me interested and guessing throughout the entire movie. It still featured some surprising and interesting elements, while "Saw V" really doesn't feature any. No big surprises or twists here, not even at the ending, which in my opinion was a bit weak and disappointing. Normally the end of a Saw movie provides a big twists that will leave you shocked and stunned in your chair, for a few minutes after the movie has ended. I missed this in "Saw V".

The movie is also the least interesting Saw movie as of yet because it features some lazy writing. Normally Saw scripts are airtight ones but not this one sadly. It often takes the obvious paths.

Like always it is also featuring lots of different plot-lines and characters again, although in this case not all are connected well enough to each other. Seriously, what have all those people going to the Jigsaw-trails have to do with the rest of the movie its plot? It just seems to be there because its a Saw movie and it needs to feature all these sick and twisted games. The story lines don't ever really get together well enough. The movie again is also featuring lots of flashbacks, which shows events that happened in the previous movies, often seen from a different side this time but some of these flashbacks however are quite pointless for the movie once you start thinking about it.

I also blame Hoffman for it that this movie doesn't work out as good and interesting as any of the other sequels. He's the new Jigsaw and as of yet he also is the least interesting one. It probably also has to do with the fact that he is featured a lot in the movie, while Jigsaw normally always remain on the background. Also the reasons why he became the new Jigsaw, as gets shown in this movie, are a bit shaky and not exactly believable.

The movie itself is perhaps also lacking in one clear good main hero and character.

It still is a superior genre movie of course. It's concept alone is already good and interesting enough to please the genre fans and provides the potential for an infinitive amount of Saw-sequels. All Saw movies have a great look and atmosphere over them, though this one works out as the least effective one when it comes down to its atmosphere and horror/thriller elements because of the reason that this movie features very little new elements.

The Jigsaw games themselves also seem less innovative and clever. It's still gruesome and lots of bloods and guts can be seen flying around but it's just less surprising and shocking all.

Lets hope "Saw VI" will have some fresh new good ideas and a better script with some better- and more interesting characters in it.

7/10

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Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead but his games continue with five new trapped victims. Police detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is promoted and credited with taking him down. FBI Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) is a survivor and he knows it's Hoffman. John's ex-wife Jill (Betsy Russell) receives a box from him and claims to be stalked by someone.

I'm not really invested in the new people. Quite frankly, it's been a long time since I saw the 4th one and I barely remember all the flashbacks. I get it. He was there all the time. I'm slightly more invested in Strahm. It's nice to see Betsy Russell again. I thought she was retired by that time. This is mainly for the fans of the franchise. These are not good as stand-alone movies.

The fifth in the interminable series of SAW films is without a doubt the weakest yet, thanks to a non-existent script and overly showy direction from the appropriately named David Hackl – a guy who worked as production assistant on the other films, which does NOT qualify him to act as a proper director on this. His attempts at style – fast-forwarding scenes for no reason – likened him in my mind to an annoying house fly that keeps buzzing around your head and which you're desperate to swat. As for the story, well trying to make much sense of it is hopeless. Once again it has to go backwards in time, as the producers of this series made the mistake of killing the villain off in the third instalment, so the only way of featuring him now is to keep inserting scenes within scenes, sub-plots within sub-plots. It's all very headache inducing and rather inane.

As with the other SAW movies, the plot involves some police procedural type stuff along with the usual grisly traps. Here there's a lame return to the set up of SAW II, with a group of five people progressing through a series of rooms. CUBE, anyone? Don't go expecting the same level of intelligence though as the sign-posted twists here are less clever than they think they are (and the twist reveal about Agent Strahm at the climax of this is particularly ludicrous, a non-starter if ever it was one). The previous film in this series was equally muddled, but at least it had more of a Grand Guignol atmosphere about it, whereas this one is content to just go through the motions.

The film opens with an explicit and disgusting death scene that pays homage to Poe – but it's the worst staging of the infamous Pit and the Pendulum moment that I've seen on film, lacking any suspense. The subsequent moments are explosive rather than shocking, and there's a distinct lack of the tension that made the previous movies in this series at least watchable. The gore is brutal and gruesome, but there's something over-stylised about it so it doesn't have much impact. The only squirm-inducing bit is the 'blood jar' trap at the climax, which is so extreme as to be almost unwatchable, the one true moment of power the film possesses. Cast-wise, everyone's going through the motions, and I was particularly disappointed with Julie Benz's wooden turn (especially as she was so convincing in the same year's RAMBO). The only cast members I liked were Tobin Bell himself (always giving a multi-layered performance) and Scott Patterson as the clean-cut hero type. The only scene with genuine wit is Patterson's trap at the beginning, in which he gives himself a makeshift tracheotomy to escape drowning; it's a shame the rest of the film couldn't equal that level of originality, instead happy to rerun familiar or unbelievable events.