Game Over! Ranking The Saw Franchise



Here's a fun fact I'm gonna reveal at the end of this.  I only went to the theater (twice) for the first movie in this series.  While I am a fan of them, when Saw II came out and my job at the time got screeners from from Lionsgate (Lion's Gate at that time) for their theatrical releases the same day they came out in theaters.  So, I'd get to see it for free and in our biggest DVD testing room with the biggest and best TV and surround equipment at that time.  So I kind of had a the next best thing, and I was on the clock getting paid to watch it.  This also was the case for III and IV.  When V came out I just didn't make it as I was out of town on a trip...then I saw V and it was bad enough for me to wait for VI on home video.  I have no idea why I didn't go see 3-D.  BUT, I did have a running gag with my friends and employees back in the day and I was sort of sticking to it.  I had said that "When they get to Saw VIII, I will return to the theater".  And I thought it was going to happen.  Then, anticlimatically, it was over JUST before it got to that.

SAW Retrospective: Saw III (2006)

Saw III

2006

Director:  Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring:  Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Donnie Wahlberg, Leigh Whannel, Costas Mandylor, Dina Meyer, Lyriq Bent

Rated: R

Death is a surprise party.

             ~Jigsaw

SAW Retrospective: Saw (2004)

Saw

2004

Director: James Wan

Starring: Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Leigh Whannel, Michael Emerson, Monica Potter, Dina Meyer, Ken Leung, Tobin Bell

Rated: R

I'm a kill you, you sick asshole!

    ~Detective David Tapp

The Matrix Retrospectived: Enter The Matrix (2003)

In addition to The Animatrix, The Matrix sequels had a video game tie in as well.  And no, this wasn't some generic LJN type thing, this was the real deal.  This had the actors from the movie in a plot with scenes written and directed by the Wachowskis.  It was a pretty big deal.  The story didn't follow Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and the gang though.  It followed the exploits of Niobe and Ghost aboard the Logos.  When playing for the first time after seeing The Matrix Reloaded, one can go "Ohhhh, so THAT'S where Jada Pinkett-Smith's scenes went!"  She was a big casting announcement for this movie back in 2002 and when you see the film you're left kinda like "That was it?" with her.  But come the video game, she gets far more meat to chew on.