Review in a Hurry: The death of nearly every character in the franchise isn't enough to prevent the makers from grinding out another edition of Saw. Could they just finish the job?
The Bigger Picture: Hey, at least they're punctual! It's been precisely a year since we last heard from the bloodthirsty, trap-happy killers of Saw, which means we're due for an update. So here it is: Archvillain Jigsaw, still dead. Dead protégé Amanda, still dead. Interchangeable victim-types, still alive, but not for long. And cop Hoffman, revealed as a villain at the end of Saw IV, conveniently alive, which means that only about a third of Saw V has to be told in flashback.
Flashbacks, archival footage, pointless retroactive continuity: Add recycling to the Saw list of dubious virtues. It's become the job of each subsequent sequel to paper over the more preposterous or ill-explained events of the earlier versions, only to throw in a twist at the end to complicate things further. (The twist this time, oddly, is that there isn't one; if you haven't figured out the ending(s) of Saw V well before the credits roll, you're either not paying attention or made a little too squeamish by all the fake blood to be in the theater in the first place.)
Jigsaw's psychotic Rube Goldberg contraptions are still the main attraction, so it probably made sense to cut out the middleman and have series production designer David Hackl take over directing duties. But the traps themselves are a little rustier than usual this time around. The painful options on offer seem easier than ever—seriously, a pack of half-blind rats would get through Saw V's deadly obstacle course before the second reel was over—and yet the hapless victims still end up as bloody corpses. You might do well to consider that when Jigsaw says, "I want to play a game," he always offers a choice: One would be to take your ball and stay home.
The 180—a Second Opinion: They're cheap, they make money, they come out on time: If you really want to learn how to have a career in Hollywood, you could do worse than study this series. And then, please, start building a better mousetrap.