![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="360" width="640" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
The sporadically innovative and occasionally brilliant Saw series ends not so much with a roar but a sputtering whimper with this final installment; really, if the filmmakers had spent as much time on the script as they did on the (ultimately lame) 3D effects, we might’ve had a closing chapter worthy of Jigsaw’s considerable legacy. Unfortunately, we’re left with the story of Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery), a first-class loser turned successful self-help guru after he (supposedly) survives his own run-in with Jigsaw; he ends up being clumsily connected to various Saw players from the past (including Cary Elwes‘ Dr. Lawrence Gordon from the original film) as he traverses his own deadly “game.” Cheap-looking, moronic, senselessly violent and mind-numbingly cruel without the usually redeeming “morality play” themes of most of the previous installments, Saw: The Final Chapter makes even hardcore fans of the series glad that it’s finally all over — you get a sense that the producers just didn’t care any more after realizing that their audience had since become distracted by the Paranormal Activity movies.