The Purge: A fairly lukewarm anarchy

by Jon Petre

What? A bad America? No. Well then, I
guess this is cool and edgy!

I reviewed The Purge back in 2013 (God, was it really that long ago?) and, much like its sequel, it received only a lukewarm appreciation from me. Anarchy was, I think, somewhat better, but there were still too many elements that held it back.

Anarchy sheds the characters of the first film for a newer cast that could've been much more exciting than they came across. Two women (a mother and a daughter, Eva and Cali) prepare to barricade themselves inside their home for the night, but there is something wrong with Eva's terminally ill father (Cali's granddad). A soon-to-be-divorced couple find themselves trapped outside with only a few minutes to go before the Purge starts, and a disgraced Police sergeant (played well by Frank Grillo) prepares himself to kill the man that ran over his son while under the influence. Compelling stuff, right?

But wait! There's more!
At the same time, a group of mysterious "anarchists" are hacking government channels and trying to get the truth out--the purge is just a plot by the government to kill off criminals/poor people (basically the same thing in their eyes), thereby keeping population and unemployment down. My god? The government? Wrong? How original!

Jokes aside, I really thought that Anarchy had some credence behind it. Grillo's character seemed interesting enough, and there seemed to be a lot to be going on with in regard to the rebel-freedom-fighters. The film began quite slowly, but I suspect that was to build tension and such. All it succeeded in doing was boring me. The freedom fighters didn't actually show until about twenty minutes from the end. I mean, come on. There was so much build-up, but there was no delivery. It was like taking all the ingredients for a beautiful, summery meal and then smashing them together in a trash compactor and microwaving it until the smoke smells good.

Come on!

I really stopped caring about the characters around--well, it didn't really start, if I'm totally honest. If my interest/care were to be plotted on a graph, we started somewhere around the middle, then it dropped, then it tentatively rose when we found out "the plan", just before the halfway point or so, but then it dropped out and I really couldn't care less. It was the same feeling that you get when watching a horror movie--"Oh my god, just stop that". I rolled my eyes more than once during the Purge. There was a spike of interest again, when the anarchists finally did surface, but I feel that James DeMonaco
was trying to pander to too many audiences and too many genres--this wasn't a successful blend of horror, action, satire and thriller.

Oh, ha. I see what you did there. And a black God/!?!!? Wow. 

And the satire. My god, the social commentary. DeMonaco was trying to make a statement about America throughout the film; that the new government was evil, corrupt, anti-working class and white. Well done. It wasn't edgy, and I didn't think--wow, you've opened my worldview! This sort of thing has been done before, and it's been done better. If the subject of the film had been a critical look at post-modern America, then perhaps it might've worked, but there were too many factors to let just one of them breathe.

In conclusion, The Purge: Anarchy was by no means a good film, though it surpassed the home invasion thriller of its predecessor. There were some great elements here and there, and if the focus had been more on these factors rather than trying to make cool baddies and a better horror vibe then this really could've been something. Perhaps with a bigger budget they could've hired more writers, more directors, but at the end of the day I think the focus should be how you're doing it, rather than how much of it you're doing. A turgid two from me.

2/5