Honestly? This is one of the best entries in the Saw saga... and that is saying A LOT, considering the mess that the Saw saga has been.
First, it's a story that follows John Kramer's storyline in it's entirety, focused on his devilish game against a group of con artists that truly deserve what happens to them. (And you can't even try to like these a-holes.)
Tobin Bell proves that the notorious Jigsaw killer has more tricks up his sleeve and shows us his most personal game in the franchise. Amanda Young's return and her dialogues with John are a perfect relief to the grotesque imagery that we have come to recognize in the Saw films, but this time, the effects are better and bloodier. With clever twists, a vicious set of new traps, a surprising antagonist in Synnøve Macody Lund's character and the glorious return of the Zepp theme taken into new hights courtesy of Charlie Clouser's score... Saw X may be a prequel to all the messy sequels that followed the original classic, but Is a promising return to form that has given the saga a new chance to keep the game going.
Also, I feel weird by not feeling bad about ANY of the other characters and their fates in the movie, like, they all could choke for trying to mess with good old' John... but to involve a child in their buffoonery? Electric chair, to all of them. PERIOD.
As it seems to be the mood all season long, there are sweet moments and a general relaxing, lack of menaces, sitcom style atmosphere.
Which sometimes I just need, so that's a joy.
But the characters' storylines are fragmented, abruptly interrupted for more than 1 ep, then get a sudden turn which was building up 2 eps before. Other times some changes of mind or behaviour are just too quick, compared to how a character had just behaved up until that point. Don't get me wrong, I like seeing Alice rekindling her relationship with her dad or Sean going full speed into his own business idea. But she had been very stubborn and hurt and putting an emotional wall till ep. 8 ending, and now they're almost back to normal? Sean was given 2 minutes of trying office job? Brian's marriage prep and relationship with his own father got 20 seconds?
There's really, really too much stuff going on which isn't given enough space nor exploration or that seemed rushed into the next chapter out of fear of living that storyline too much behind.
I don't know if the 30 minutes format is too tight for all the ideas they had or if they should have just taken it slower and developed things in the following season.. but it feels off.
