Clif-Notes: Saw 3D

SPOILER ALERT - THAR BE SECRETS REVEALED WITHIN THESE WORDS

I freely admit that I love the Saw movies even though everything after the first one lacked any sort of original idea for their stories and characters. The first one took an old idea and presented it in a new way and it is easily the best of the series and, I think, arguably one of the the better "horror" movies to date. 2-6, however, just became a gore fest. From "horror" to "slasher" for me. But I still love 'em for that because I still think it's fun.
Saw 3D was mostly a cliche of it's own movies. This time around, the man (Bobby, played by Sean Patrick Flanery) put into the games is done so because he has made fame and fortune off of telling his story of surviving Jigsaw. The real problem with this? Bobby has never actually been part of Jigsaw's games. So he sets out to try and rescue the people who are parts of this lie in the ultimate goal of saving his wife, who doesn't know it's a lie. His game is plenty bloody and plenty gory and it was all fun to see in 3D (though definitely not needed in 3D).
Meanwhile, Detective Hoffman is still Jigsaw's only apprentice left and he is still desecrating the "true mean" of what Jigsaw started. Jigsaw's now widow has told the cops about Hoffman and he is set to take her out. Both of these stories playing out simultaneously throughout the movie.
As much as I love me some gross gore, this movie was pretty much that and I found it to be a very unnecessary movie. Until the end. The 7th and "final" Saw actually surprised me at the end almost as much as the first one did. And here is the spoiler that tells why. Turns out Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) from the first one didn't die after he crawled out of that bathroom. Jigsaw took him as another apprentice! He has been the one in all these movies who has been planting keys inside people's eyes or sewing shut their mouths. He has been the doctor helping with it this whole time! Sadly, Detective Hoffman does kill Jigsaw's wife, Jill, but as a final instruction, Gordon was told to get rid of him if anything were to happen to her. And since Jigsaw kept Gordon a secret from the others, Hoffman had no idea some one was waiting for him. Gordon locks him up in that same bathroom from the first movie, with no way of getting out and thus ends the movie.
That ending saved it for me. I absolutely did not see Gordon coming back and this was even after I knew his character was in this movie! And it fit perfectly and made sense! I will give the credit where the credit is due. The writers of these movies have made great torture devices but, other than the first one, not real creative on the stories but this one helps redeem that a bit. I was totally thrown off guard and for that, Saw 3D gets my approval.