Critical Reception

Saw
Critical responses were mixed. It earned a 46% rating from Rotten Tomatoes! and a 29% rating from the most esteemed professional critics, qualifying it as "rotten" =[
Despite the mixed critical response, the movie attracted a strong following and spawned over 4 sequels!
Critic Roger Ebert called the film "an efficiently made thriller" but "finally not quite worth the ordeal it puts us through". Carla Meyer (The San Francisco Chronicle) wrote that the film "[combined] B-movie acting with a twisted mind-set and visual tricks designed to camouflage cheap effects” and that it was “terrifying at some moments an insinuatingly creepy at many others”.

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/saw/

WHAT IS SHE ON ABOUT?! Saw was gooooood. It had a suprising twist, silly critics ><" Saw II

Critics found Jigsaw's diabolic "games" to require a large amount of planning and fortuitous timing in order to succeed, even more so than in the previous film. Tobin Bell (Jigsaw - the creepy old man) addressed some of these criticisms by saying, "My sense is that [Jigsaw] is so detail oriented that I think he thinks in terms of worst case scenario. I think he's a very good judge of character, so his sense that, for example, that Detective Matthews was going to play right into his trap, which he did, was right on. Now, it seems to me that he's got plan 2 always in place. And there's probably been a number of plan 2s. I mean, we've only seen three movies. Maybe there are six more somewhere where he failed, where something didn't play out".

(Perhaps a little biased, but Jigsaw owns!)

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the rating of this film was only 36% with several reviewers revolted by the explicit gore and torture scenes. (people are weenies!) Of the few critics who provided positive reviews, some remarked that it was a worthy follow-up providing plently of what fans of the first expected. (DAMN RIGHT!)

The film garnered far more positive reception with the public than tha critics (because critics are losers who don't like anything). It currently holds a rating of 74% by users at Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 6.8 at the Internet Movie Database.

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/saw_ii/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432348/

Saw III
At screening in the UK, three people were reported to have fainted at seperate cinemas, resulting in ambulances needing to be called. (AGAIN, people are such weenies!)

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 26% rating, qualifying it as "Rotten".

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/search/full_search.php?search=Saw+III

Saw IV

Critical reception was generally negative. The holds a rating of 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 16 reviews.

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/saw_4/

On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 36 out of 100, based on 16 reviews.

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/saw4

Scott Schueller (Los Angeles Times) called it "a film as edgy as a rubber knife" (BURN!) and said that "if the terrible craft of Bousman's film doesn't turn your stomach, the borderline pornographic violence will. It's disconcerting to imagine anyone enjoying the vile filth splashing the screen".

Frank Scheck (The Hollywood Reporter) said "the famously inventive torture sequences here seem depleted of imagination", but added that "it hasn't yet jumped the shark like such predecessors as the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th moves eventually did.

Peter Hartlaub (The San Francisco Chronicle) called it "the Syriana of slasher films, so complicated and circuitous that your only hope of understanding everything is to eat lots of fish the night before an then watch each of the pervious films, in order, right before you enter the theater".

Positive reviews came from Scott Weinberg (Fearnet), who said that while it "is almost certainly the weakest of the series where stuff like plot, logic, and chills are concerned...there's still more than enough here to keep the fans intrigued, entertained, and squirming in their seats" (WOO) and added that the "Saw-makers are to be commended for actually putting forth this sort of effort".

I agree with this, the Saw series in comparison to cheap horror sequels such as Halloween 5 and Friday the 13th Part 7 have actually done pretty well. The writers ACTUALLY care about narrative continuity, even right down to the smallet detail! & this is fairly impressive.

Saw V
The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 12% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 57 reviews - with the consensus that "if its plot were as interesting as its torture devices, or its violence less painful than its performances, perhaps Saw V might not feel like it was running on fumes".

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/saw_v/

Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 20 out of 100, based on ten reviews.

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/sawv

Elizabeth Weizman (New York Daily News) believed that the lack of Tobin Bell's character hurt the film: "Bell's deliciously twisted madman was the lifeline of this series, and without him we're left watching a routine horror flick that might as well have gone straigh to DVD (OUCH!). The series began with two major assests that set it apart: the concept of a brilliantly righteous executioner, and the actor who played him him. Now, aside from Bell's brief, intermittent cameos, it has neither. So where the original Saw was diabolical fun, this fifth installment is as bloodless as the most unfortunate of Jigsaw's victims.

Some reviews were positive, however. British website Digital Spy was relatively positive about the film, rating it 3/5 stars and commending the film for its "solid acting, slick direction and suitably filthy cinematography too", while also stating it will "make far more sense to those familiar with the previous installments".

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a133652/saw-v.html

IGN also awared the film with 3 out of 5 stars stating that the film ties up most of the loose ends of the previous 4 installements while also having a more straightforward and less complicated storyline. They also praised the traps for being the most inventive and best that the Saw franchise had had to offer. (YAY!)

http://uk.movies.ign.com/objects/893/893540.html

Conclusion

It seems to me, that every year the Saw films have got more gory, more twisted, more sick, and more disturbing. The films are a bit like marmite: you either love them or hate them.
If you have seen the first one, or atleast one of them and did not enjoy it why go see another one?!
The people who slate them really make me laugh. It is a genre piece and has certain expectations, AND they are talked about. So you have some rough idea what you are in for! YOU FOOLS!

This people annoy me, but also amuse me =D
However, I am backing Saw

SAW FOR THE WIN!