Spiral: A messy game that had so much potential

To summarize my overall feeling about this movie, I would review it as if I was writing a personal statement about my relationship status. My profile would start as a positive, but the more I would continue to write, the conclusion takes a turn and, by the end, leaves me writing, "it's complicated." The ninth film in the "Saw" franchise has a brilliant style to shake up the popular slasher series. Unfortunately, its execution comes off a bit messy. Director Darren Lynn Bousman's vision of a gritty crime thriller told in the "Saw" universe is a great idea. The problem, however, is that the film can't decide whether it wants to be a crime drama or a "Saw" feature, and because of this, the film has a predictable premise that I saw coming a mile away. The silver lining in the movie is Chris Rock gives an excellent performance as a detective who will stop at nothing to find the Jigsaw killer. Samuel L. Jackson also provides a solid performance as Chris Rock's father. The traps designed to torture Jigsaw's victims are gruesome and very creative, which is always the best part within the "Saw" franchise. "Spiral" is not a bad sequel or a good sequel; instead, it comes off as a meh. Despite having creative traps and great performances by Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, the messy direction and predictable storytelling made me want to play a different game instead of "Spiral." The film had so much potential but unfortunately could not get the job done.

#Spiral #FilmReview #SkipIt