Seriously, why was "Saw" hyped so much?
I asked myself the same question when I finally "saw" it. My friend and I were both like, huh?
If you saw only the ending, then you saw the best part of the whole movie. Really. Don't even bother to go back and watch the rest, you'll be wanting to cut off your own leg.
The movie itself was pretty interesting as a concept, and personally I think the twist at the end is great. But like I said, it's the only real good part of the movie. The acting and dialogue in the rest of the movie is so incredibly horrendous (honestly, outside of
The Princess Bride I can't think of anything Cary Elwes has done that shows a modicum of talent). It shouldn't come as any great shock that one of the horrible actors (the guy in the room with Elwes), is also one of the writers. I'm guessing he did the dialogue. (*snark*)
Tobin Bell is the only one in the movie that was worth anything, and he does an excellent job, particularly considering- well- what he does do in the movie.
Anyway, I never saw any of the sequels (had no desire, after the first one), but I saw the "twist" in the second one coming from the trailer (and had it confirmed later by a friend).
In my opinion, it was a great concept with flawed execution. And the requisite oversaturation after the fact. That, plus they are tapping into the rejuvenated horror feature market, and are probably relatively inexpensive to make, I think accounts for Saw's popularity.
There are some threads here on the boards about it. You might do a search to see what others thought.