Saw? - A Waste of Time

What is the adjective for a franchise that is under-plotted, overacted, poorly written and undeniably self indulgent: The Saw Franchise. A series of films which lack any real kind of plot, and which simply feel like the result of the catharsis of one man's sick fantasies. I will admit that I have not seen the whole of this franchise, so i will limit my comments to the first installment.

The premise of this franchise is that a man with terminal cancer attempts to teach bad people a lesson through a series of 'traps', in which people generally have to mutilate themselves in order to escape. This paper thin premise is the canvas on which the film unfolds, with 'traps' such as the reverse bear. The shaky plot of the film revolves around two men who wake up to find themselves in a deserted bathroom, and who must work together in order to escape. A plot ensues envolving a lot of flashbacks and people who randomly seem to remember things at appropriate moments, am I missing something?

The real problem with this film is that it fails to decide what it accurately wants to be, it can't distinguish between being a slasher film which makes one guffaw at its gruesome antics, yet also fails to thrill the audience, and i must say that i was a little bored whilst watching this film. The film doesn't allow its audience to make a connection with its characters, and i didn't particularly care whether these characters lived or not, perhaps this has to do with the horrendous acting, the film contains much of what i would refer to as 'porn star' acting, however i will refrain from using this phrase here as  i feel that this is offensive to the adult film industry.

The actors in this film really are appalling, and yes, they had very little to work with in terms of a script, yet that doesn't excuse the fact that the actors in this film failed to even scream convincingly. I would tell you which actor played which role, yet i found this film so uninteresting, that besides the villain, i couldn't tell you a single characters name (the villain is called Jigsaw). Overall this is a pretty appalling film, and really should only be used as a drinking game, the acting is really really bad, and the film fails to be either funny or scary, and I have seen you tube videos that managed to cram more character development into a five minute skit than this entire film contains, even if this film had terrified me and stopped me sleeping, i would still have liked it more. Rating:D

So tell me readers, am I missing something, did anyone like this franchise? given the films box office receipts i gather someone must have! Let the world know in the comments box below.