The Purge: Anarchy

The movie I originally wanted

This movie does not reference the previous movie at all except for the main premise (which I appreciate). We follow three different arcs. One group is a mother Eva (Carmen Ejogo) and her daughter Cali (Zoe Soul) trying to stay at home with a sick grandfather, which doesn't go according to plan, forcing them out on the streets. The other is a young middle class couple, Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez), trying to get home before the night starts, which also doesn't go according to plan. The last is a lone man (Frank Grillo) set to right a wrong in his life and hunt down a man who has hurt him. The man happens upon the other four others and (against his better judgement) saves them, forcing him into the role of protector. The family has a well funded group hunting them down, and the couple has what appears to be street thugs hunting them down. They all try to stay together to make it through the night, while the clock ticks on the lone man's time for vengeance.

It is no mystery that I was let down by the first installment of this film. They had one of the most interesting concepts I have heard of in a while and used it as an excuse for a stupid home invasion style slasher film. So I had high hopes that this movie might pick up the slack where the last movie failed, and I wasn't disappointed. The characters in this aren't really anything to write home about. We have the lone gun men in a town armed to the teeth. The poor family being set upon by the upper-class and the couple going through marital issues while trying to make it out of an extraordinary situation. Pretty cut and dry as things go, but then again the premise of this movie was the only thing I was expecting to be original. If the characters just happened to follow that example it would have been a bonus. The real winning idea here was to make this movie more of an action and less of a horror. Sure there are still jump scares every once in a while, but nothing you don't see in your most basic action romp. It wasn't a great story line, but it was a massive improvement. It was littered with "political messages" in regards to things like second amendment rights and classicism, and they did drag the story down a little bit. The things I liked were the upper-class rounding up people to purge, making bids on the lot and going all "The World's Most Dangerous Game" on them. I liked the Black Panther style group of resistance that dedicated their mission to killing the upper percentile. Their were plenty of interesting points in this movie, and the only things that seemed to drag the movie down were getting too far up their own ass with messages and dumb characterization.

The thing I really loved about this movie was the pacing and setting. I wouldn't say I was on the edge of my seat for the greater portion of this movie; but, their were times you could cut the tension with a knife. One time particular was a scene where a family was saying all of these back handed insults to each other and getting into arguments. The entire time I was thinking 'What is to stop them from just killing everyone?" The fact that our would be anti-hero was on a clock for his revenge put me in a bit of an awkward situation. I wanted the purge to end so the people would be safe, but I also wanted it to last a little longer to see what he would do. The right parts of this movie were drawn out, and the other parts were sped up just enough to keep my interest. Very well done.  

The only actor I can really set above the rest of the crowd in this was Frank Grillo. I am a big fan of Frank Grillo and I have wanted to him have starring role for a while, to see what he can do with it. He didn't disappoint. He was just the right amount of leader, mixed with broken past, mixed with confused present that I needed from a character like this. The fact that his career has been marked by mainly background characters like "Agent One" or "Squadron Commanding Officer" is a shame, but at least I have movies like this and "Warrior" to bide my time until people see fit to give him more screen time or bigger roles. The rest of the cast was interchangeable. They did a really good job of acting afraid or sad all the time, but I can't really expect much from people who are playing such bland characters.

My final thoughts on this are really about the way they are going through the series. I know from the ending of this that there is most likely going to be a third movie. Right now it seems that they are progressing through the effects of the purge on different classes (the first movie was high class and this is low class). Maybe next movie they are going to have a full blown revolution episode, who knows. I just wish they would progress through it with different crimes. I know why they focus mainly on murder (because that sells, and message about inner demons, and what have you), but I would have liked to see a movie where a group of people go on a car jacking spree, or a drug run, or something else. Personally, if this was a real life scenario I wouldn't want to kill anyone. I would want to rob the rich neighborhoods blind. Get myself a new car and a lot of money. As I said I know why they focus on murder, but all I would see is the fact that the government declared everything free one day a year. Time to go shopping....with a gun.... and a blow torch.

Final Verdict: Rent it Since I would have given the original a "Don't do it" this movie is a vast improvement, but still lacks some things that would make it great. Maybe the next one will be even better, but I think this is probably going to be the series' highest peak.