Cube series, and gauntlet-type movies

Back in 1997, the first "Cube" movie came out. I don't remember much about it, other than the basic premise: a bunch of people wake up in a giant cube filled with traps and must work together to find their way out. Of course, people panic and often sabotage others in their efforts to escape. Honestly, the ending of the movie doesn't even matter, because it's pretty ambiguous, so whatever.

The first movie doesn't seem too far-fetched, because if I remember correctly, it's mostly mechanical traps with specific triggers. It's math based puzzles and pattern-solving, and whatnot. While I personally would be screwed by those type of questions, I guess it makes sense enough.

Then, the second movie "Hypercube" (2002) deals with multi-dimensional cubes, and the sci-fi is turned up to 11. Again, nothing is truly answered in these movies so far, and the ending still makes zero sense, leaving you pretty apathetic about the whole experience.

Part 3 is actually part 0, a prequel from 2004. It starts off with some gnarly gore of a man melting, but again, it quickly delves into some illogical sci-fi shennanigans. People getting caught up into traps that seem to magically entangle them, yada yada...



It's clear these movies were in the inspiration for 'Saw'. As much as I don't care for the Saw movies, at least those had a realistic basis to them. Most of those traps had a mechanical grounding to them, so in its own twisted way, it made sense. Cube though? Hardly. Too much bad CGI and nonsensically intellectual jargon going on in these movies.


Thoughts on the Cube series? And/or compared to Saw? And possibly any other gauntlet/trap type movies like this?