Saw IV

Some spoilery things ahead. Read at your own risk if you haven't seen the movie yet.

We're big fans of the Saw movies. Last night we saw Saw IV. If you see it, just disregard the first scene, and the movie will be great. Well... enjoy that scene for its stomach-turning grossness, and then just leave it on the cutting room floor of your mind. It has no bearing on the film itself, and is there to mislead you. Problem is, you're already being misled without it, so it is unnecessarily confusing.

We came out of there at 11:15 pm and talked about the plot twist at the end until 2:00 am. We just didn't understand it at all when considered along with scene 1. Finally we got on the web and saw that people were explaining that they think the first scene... SPOILER ALERT... the first scene has not yet occurred. I mean not even as of the final scene of the film. It's more related to opening things up for Saw V.

Now, if they had gone back to that scene at the end (or placed it at the end), it would have been a huge letdown from the surprising final scene. So, I think they just should have left the first scene out. It is the viewers' natural assumption that everything is happening in real time, even without the autopsy scene.

Anyway, that aside, it was pretty good. I didn't like the artsy-fartsy scene transitions at all. I found them distracting in a horror film. I loved the flashbacks that gave us insight into John's history. The story was good. The traps weren't the best of the four films, but they were definitely gory enough.

I give it a B without the first scene. The theater was beyond crowded. Huge turnout here.