In an idealized future version of America, we vent our national frustration on one golden night, in which all crime up to and including murder is legal and the results are somehow televised. Apparently it works, because violence is supposedly down and employment is way up, but there is the tricky issue of surviving that single naughty holiday without passing through the crosshairs of an enemy.
As a concept, The Purge is ripe. Especially so today, four years after its release, when the nation seems as politically and culturally divided as ever and violent undercurrents are simmering. There's so much opportunity to toy with the metaphorical overtone (including one or two extra-interesting caveats about the event itself which are left unexplored) that it's amazing they're merely used to prop up a rather generic horror/suspense combo. Family makes a series of poor choices. Bad guys show up on their doorstep to make threats and embrace modern horror stereotypes. Big showdown with a few telegraphed twists. That's the jist. The allure of the Purge, and the nationwide embrace of what it means, is right there, just begging to be further mined, but instead it's relegated to mere background color. An excuse not to call the police, really, and nothing more.
Despite an inspired (and, go figure, largely unexplored) take by Rhys Wakefield as the charismatic gang leader, this is some bland, uniform stuff.
Much like many horror films, The Purge (2013) is a reflection and commentary on classism & American privilege. In regard to its political/social message & ideas and worldbuilding in general it is an excellent piece; I'm barely surprised and almost happy that there are more movies in this series -- what little was shown here really did made me want to look behind the curtain and see more.
The dialogue, while often very... "written", for a lack of a better descriptor, provides a clumsy, but still effective vessel for conveying the message, even if not so much for characters' backstories & individualities (not necessary in a project like this, but not unwelcome). The little characteristic details that are there mostly belong to Charlie, definitely a shining star among the cast.
The pacing is nice, and the fighting scenes choreography is fun, even if it can be hard to discern what is going on between the shaky camera movements.
An interesting contrast is presented in the set design between the three acts & the way light and shadow function, making the different "sections" of the movie feeling more divisive and the stakes -- more properly increased. The sound design is also on point, with an interesting effect closer to the midpoint of the movie.
I know I had said in my Halloween Ends review it drew traces of Haneke for me, and well, after finally checking this franchise out, it feels VERRY Haneke. Specifically a riff of his infamous Funny Games.
Although short, the film acts as a unique meditative experience and psychological home invasion thriller. I feel like most people came into this movie expecting something flashy and gore-infested ala something like Zombieland, and maybe the sequels have more of that stuff, but I heavily appreciate how this film gradually illudes from excessive violence and gives us an unholy cryptoic messaging around every corner, firstly with the addictiveness of sin, and secondly with the hypocrisy of the richest of society. It makes us ponder why we'd want violence at all, and why the nature of death and chaos fascinates us; commentating on our hyper-idealized and romanticized worldviews on what is right and wrong and how that spells our inhuman separations, and ultimately what leads us to take pleasure in chaotic behavior. It's certainly underrated to me, where every other critic is poking at simply the concept of the movie and not the actual work itself; same thing happened with The Matrix.
Where this film loses me is its odd choices in character depth and having pointless bodies get killed off fairly quickly with no real use. Not to mention, this film falls victim to the deus ex machina savior trope; of some random person off-screen coming to save the day. Not asking for a happy ending, but at least go the full track if your willing to run the mile.
Review by OtamajakushiVIP 11BlockedParentSpoilers2017-10-03T16:59:57Z
I didn't love this film, but I was certainly entertained and I thought the concept was interesting. It'll be interesting to see the what the political climate looked like leading up to this. Perhaps in the sequels.
That aside, the film does do well with portraying technology of the future. It's realistic, at least at the time of the film's making, and isn't overly "in your face". One thing that comes to mind is Charlie's glasses, which featured pretty high resolution monitors showing the feed from his RC car... wirelessly!
The film was dark, but I think it did a good job of emphasizing key aspects of each scene. I thought the PoV from the RC car was a neat touch, giving it that sort of hand-held camera effect, but without the shakiness that normally comes with that.
I feel like there's a lot going on in this story that doesn't entirely add up. The entire story exists because Charlie opened up the house to the man. Anyone can debate the ethics in doing so or not doing so, but the point is that the entire plot exists because of this one action. I'm not sure how I feel about that. They tried to redeem it in the end, though, with the neighbors wanting in on it. Even that, however, wasn't well done. It was more of a "story's over now let's add a little more to fill out some time..." and they just, literally, sit there.
I agree with the other comments that say the family needed a panic room. For such an event, the protection offered by the security system is mainly for looks. Granted, this was mentioned in the film briefly. Also, if the "polite leader" had any intention of keeping the family alive, why did he cut the power? Meh, I'll suspend disbelief for this one.
This film wasn't good, and has a lot of plot holes. It felt as if they were stretching to get to 90 minutes for a feature-length film (they didn't by the way). I was entertained, but didn't really find much realism in the concept behind the film.