Monday, 17 May 2021

Spiral - The scoop and digest

Darren Lynn Bousman (who directed Saw II, III and IV) returns to reboot franchise.

Chris Rock - Det. Ezekiel 'Zeke' Banks
Max Minghella - Det. William Schenk
Marisol Nichols - Capt. Angie Garza
Samuel L. Jackson - Marcus Banks

Summary

During Independence Day, Det. Boswick chases a thief and gets jumped by a masked assailant.

He's given the choice to either lose his tongue or life to oncoming train.

Choo choo wins.

We're introduced to Zeke, who years prior went all Serpico.

Against his wishes, Captain Garza partners him with rookie Schenk.

After visiting murder scene, it becomes obvious that MO is extremely similar to that of Jigsaw.

Let the games begin.

Formulaic

Style and sombre tone of well received original took huge chunks from Seven.

This goes deeper, as set up of one scene almost copies Sloth.

Screenplay was 'polished' by Rock and it shows, as sometimes delivery of wise-cracks can be funny.

Having said that, dialogue plagued by 'we're gonna get this guy' wears thin.

Voice introducing traps is bizarrely robotic and a piss poor replacement for Tobin Bell's velvet tones.

As he 'died' part way through, it was so obvious that Schenk would be the killer.

Torture devices lack imagination and climax makes no fucking sense.

Marcus is rigged to a trap draining his blood.  Armed with only one bullet, Zeke can either shoot Schenk, ultimately killing father, or save pops by blasting spiral target.

Zeke decides to rescue him.

SWAT team forcing entry activates a pig police puppet which is connected to Marcus in another room.  When concealed firearm is revealed, he's gunned down and Schenk escapes.

So because of how events play out, mofo dies anyway.

Game over.

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