Almost as convoluted as Lost, Saw is by now a beginner’s nightmare. Having tied itself into narrative knots to plot endless sequels it was time to end the series before there was no option but to jump the shark or fall victim to it. Saw 3D promises closure, a final twist and a new perspective on all that came before…sort of.

The problem is that, like with Lost, the audience is inevitably left wondering whether the producers were in fact making everything up as they went along or had had a specific conclusion in mind since day 1. Originally planned to end with its eighth instalment,  previously its sixth, Saw 3D feels simultaneously rushed and padded. While I would wager that there was indeed an endgame in sight from the beginning, Saw 3D’s eleven traps seem particularly excessive – suggesting that in order to respond to the wavering box office of part six the film-makers have merged two movies into one 3D extravaganza; unfortunately choosing to compromise the visceral in order to make way for more viscera.

Whatever the reality, Saw 3D doesn’t spend enough time with any of its characters to pack sufficient punch come its final twist. At this point in the narrative it is impossible to tell who the audience is supposed to be rooting for as you are forever uncertain which character is about be offed without consequence.  With franchise runners Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith reduced to cameos, Saw 3D lacks a rhobust throughline to the series’ humble beginnings – leaving it bookended with Cary Elwes, a character unseen since the end of the first movie.

Starting out as a twisted morality lesson in which victims were tested in an attempt to determine whether or not they deserved to live, the franchise lost its way the moment it started depersonalising its tests. While this might have been the result of dramatic dead ends (there’s only so many times you can watch one person fight for their life, lets have them fight for someone else’s), putting characters in control of the lives of others contradicts the franchises mission statement and results in the slaughtering of endless extras whom the audience are given no reason to root for. An issue since Amanda Young  (Smith) fell off the proverbial wagon – killing people rather than testing them – the problem is exacerbated in Saw 3D as more characters are killed out of vengeance and contrivance than as a result of Jigsaw’s twisted ideology.

While the reintroduction of a group of survivors attempts to offset this through dramatising the effects of Jigsaw’s legacy, simple character recognition isn’t enough to compensate for the amount of characters killed impersonally without trial. There is more to Saw 3D than mindless murder. Funnier than any of the previous instalments, Saw 3D is a surprisingly airy affair. Despite the plot holes and self-consuming mythology, this finale opens the franchise up with a few daytime external shots and a look at the wider world shaped by Jigsaw’s work. On one level it is strangely accessible, though this might leave the most die-hard of fans feeling cheated out of a more self-referential and awarding dénouement.

In my franchise retrospective, I commended the Saw series for its consistent maturity – for not once resorting to tired chase sequences straight out of Tension for Dummies. That, in its closing minutes, Saw 3D resorts to just that – complete with inconveniently locked doors and bafflingly bad hiding places – goes to show how far this franchise has fallen. This is not helped by the 3D gimmickry abused throughout, with the exception of a vertigo-inducing leap of faith Saw 3D often feels like an extra filmed for the Thorpe Park ride rather than a cinematic culmination of years of work.

Just when the franchises many loose ends should have been tied, new characters are introduced and quickly disposed of without consequence leaving the ongoing battle between Hoffman and Jill Tuck over John Kramer’s legacy relegated to the sidelines for the movie’s opening hour. Hoffman, always a lesser Jigsaw, is so consumed by vengeance that his setting up of other peoples traps seems hugely contrived. Tuck, meanwhile, painstakingly developed over the course of the series as she is dragged into her ex-husbands affairs, is disappointingly reduced to running and hiding.

Although it does hark back to previous instalments, it is not until the final reel that the franchise is taken full circle. In their race to pack in as many traps into this swansong as possible, the film-makers leave themselves insufficient time to devote to the build the final twist demands (and, by now, deserves). As a result, it is difficult to decide whether the ending was ingenious or impossibly contrived and inconsequential. The jigsaw now complete, the game finally over, it really is a pity that the outcome isn’t more fulfilling.

While the Saw franchise has never aimed for emotional resonance, something which sufficiently covers the finale’s lack of heart, it does not explain its lack of brains. Instead of going for either organ, Saw 3D rather disappointingly goes straight for the jugular. Although the Saw franchise remains a technical achievement (seven above-par films in seven years is a massive accomplishment), its standing as a genre masterwork did not survive the gruelling games completely unscathed.