Saw 3D review

Halloween was once binded by the musical hook of John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween.’ However in the 2000’s Halloween now holds the musical hook of Saw (you’ve got it in your head now haven’t you) with yet another film to add to the series. Big time gore lovers and cringe cravers will be pleased by this installment to the series, sadly the series has completely lost the plot.

 

Promotional Poster

The first Saw film was a clever story with a simple message but with added gore and it worked very well. The films signature character Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) sets traps for his victims, victims whom he deems to have abused their lives from adultery to drugs to murder. The victims normally have to undergo large amounts of pain through these torturous tasks to be able to get out alive so they can truly appreciate their life.

Since the first film, the films progressively lost all of it’s original meaning and message to now limiting itself to the traps themselves as a spectacle for the films promotion. Since Jigsaw’s death in Saw 3 I don’t think the writers actually cared that much as to who was behind Jigsaw but rather, ‘let’s see how sick we can actually make this film.’ Saw 3D (AKA Saw 7) justs proves that point further by using sick and twisted traps that you know they wont ever get out alive, and even more proving to the point, an innocent woman in the facade is caught in the trap because of her husband’s lies. It goes completely against the first film.

The plot line itself was lacking greatly, character development was like watching a monkey figuring out how to build a boat. Most disappointing was Detective Gibson’s character (Chad Donella), whilst played reasonably well and bearable to watch, it seemed his subplot was building up to a climax which never happened. Furthermore the twist at the end did not satisfy your cravings for decent narrative, it was completely ridiculous. The overall continuity just seemed a mash of mindless traps, with what seemed like ten minute clips of commercials in-between rather than a story.

On lighter note, if you wanted to see a gore-fest and you think you can get over the tedious plot and the worst 3D gimmick shots since Spy Kids 3D. Saw 3D will definitely hit that spot.

Overall: 2/5

One thing that is important to pick out. The aspect ratio of this film is terrible.

James Cameron’s Avatar Review

Well the wait is finally over and the film was released last thursday to all cinemas. I’ll give a brief plot summary.

Promo Poster

We follow a man named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), he is assigned to a program called Project Avatar, where he will temporary transfer his mind into an Na’vi (a humanoid indigenous species) on the planet Pandora. The purpose is to set up a democratic relationship with the race to sort out an agreement to take some of there expensive minerals  in return for technology and knowledge. However this race aren’t so keen on the humans (or aliens in this case) and are firmly happy the way they are. The money-hungry humans don’t take no for an answer and Jake Sully is left on a internal journey to find out who he is, and whose side he is on.

The Plot:

The plot is somewhat predictable, however what is new is the situation and environment, which gives the essence of surprise to the plot. Even though its predictable you will still love the narrative. It touches a lot on American racism and consumerism, to the extent that the Americans don’t give a damn about the Na’vi, their planet or their beliefs, theres money involved they will kill them all if they have to. You actually hated the humans and wanted them to lose every fight. A film that makes you hate your own race is probably worth seeing!

Visual Effects:

Now this is the big attraction in the film. With the budget of $500m you will be expecting spectacular effects, and trust me you wont be disappointed. A lot of people are wondering why it cost so much, because ‘it just looks like a normal animation film.’ Well its blatantly not pixar! The reason it cost so much was the method. It’s nothing new but has never been used on this scale, James used the same technology as Gollum in Lord Of The Rings, actors dressing up in green suits with dots around their faces, so the actor acts out everything and the animated Na’vi follows exactly, by exactly I mean to how they run, jump, and fight to every subtle facial expression.

Neytiri played by Zoe Saldana (Star Trek)

This method was even used on the extras in the film, the Na’vi characters that had no main role. This gives a believable factor to it and you often forget they are actors. One flaw was the animation of the different species in Pandora, some of them seemed, rush, underdone and obviously much lesser effort compared to the Na’vi. I see lack of ‘Photorealism’ that Cameron had claimed, however it is close to photorealism as we probably can get with a 500m budget.

Neytiri (Saldana) and Jake (Worthington)

3D:

Don’t see this in 2D!! The production had made their own 3D cameras to give a better experience, give the film some justice and see it in 3D it will not be the same in 2D! This is the first film to ever incorporate 3D properly, by that I mean, none of this gimmick crap where everything just has to point out of the screen! It was used and you hardly noticed it, “Whats the point in that?” you ask, well it is because it was used properly and kept that realism and escapism factor to it! The only time you should notice the difference is when you see the same thing in 2D and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have the same effect.

Cinematography:

Brilliant, bright colours of Pandora that contrast to metallic artificial grey colours of the humans. What better way to show how evil the human race is. Most of the time the scenery is animated, and animated beautifully with saturated vibrant colours in the day and neon-like fluorescent enchanted colours by night.

The score:

Normally I wouldn’t mention the score in it’s own paragraph, but it’s James Horner, Cameron’s favourite music composer, who also scored Titanic, and it was pretty obvious it was the same person. He had one year to score the film where as most composers get 4 to 6 weeks, he failed to come up with anything new and all I heard was the titanic music with a jungle beat. It would of been nice to hear something different something that could make Pandora distinctive.

Leona Lewis did the soundtrack, the newly released music video is below, you can almost here Celine Dion in there somewhere

“I See You” (Theme from Avatar) by Leona Lewis in HD Video by Trailer Park – MySpace Video.

Overall: 9/10

Extremely impressive, going to see it for the second time tomorrow! Would of got a 10/10 if it wasn’t for the lack of detail in the different species and the predictable plot.

Joel’s review from The Linc (to come)